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THE 



RELIGION OF THE FUTURE 



OUTLINES OF SPIRITUAL PHILOSOPHY 



BY 



REV. SAMUEL. WEIL, 




BOSTON 
ARENA PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Copley Square 
1894 







1 



\ . ^Copyright, 1893, 
By SAMUEL WEIL. 

• *y%ll» rights reserved. 

16 '03 



Arena Press. 



TO 
MY TRANSFIGURED MOTHER 

IN LOVE 
DEDICATED BY 



The Authok 



CONTENTS. 



Prologue 



Page 



PART FIRST. 

THE FACTS. 

1APTER. 

I. Immortality and the Future State 
II. The Origin of Man 

III. The Destiny of Man 

IV. The Dual Nature of Man . 
V. Glimpses of the Higher Self 

VI. Transcendental Powers in Man 
VII. Sleep-Phenomena . 
VIII. Excursions of the Spirit 
IX. Second Sight . 
X. Clairvoyance . 
XI. Psychological Control 
XII. Inspiration 

XIII. As It Is in Heaven 

XIV. Retribution . . . 
XV. Reformation . 



PAGE. 

9 
r 5 
18 

21 

25 
29 

32 

39 
48 

55 
66 

7° 
80 
86 
92 



PART SECOND. 

THE SOURCE. 

XVI. Modern Spiritualism 97 

XVII. Pseudo-Enlightenment 119 

XVIII. The Phenomena of Spiritualism . . .128 

XIX. The Basis of Spiritualism . . . .139 



CONTENTS. 

CHAPTER. PAGE. 

XX. The Proofs 144 

XXI. The Scope of Spiritualism . . . .168 
XXII. Spiritual Evolution 179 

PART THIRD. 

THE CONSEQUENCES. 

XXIII. The Basis of Ethics 191 

XXIV. Optimism 196 

XXV. Social Problems: The Labor Question . 207 

XXVI. The Religion of the Future . . . 220 
XXVII. The Bible . . . . . . .237 

XXVIII. Conclusion . . . . . .251 



PROLOGUE. 



i. A new and glorious science of man, of his origin and 
destiny, has been developed within the last few decades. 
A new philosophy has been evolved of human life here 
and hereafter, based upon demonstrated facts and data 
accessible to all. 

Stupendous as the science of objective nature has be- 
come, it is as the mere shadow thrown upon the canvas 
of time and matter by the radiant light of immortal 
spirit. 

Modern agnosticism had set up a way-mark on the road 
of human progression, inscribed : " No thoroughfare ! " 
" Unknowable ! " The truths most indispensable for man 
to know, the destiny of man and the immortality of the 
soul, were declared absolute mysteries. What ought to 
have merely been designated as unknown, was declared 
to be unknowable. This way-mark has to be removed. 
It is now seen that the doctrine of the Relativity of 
Knowledge, as formulated by the Kantian school of 
modern philosophical thought, misled men into too hasty 
generalizations and unwarrantable conclusions. It needed 
only the right method to find the way out ; it required only 
the right key to open wondrous realms to the astonished 
gaze. Again the supremacy of mind is restored ; the 
saying is verified that " there is nothing on earth great 
but man, and in man there is nothing great but mind." 



2 PROLOGUE. 

Geology and astronomy have long ago crossed the line, 
that seemed to divide the finite from the infinite, in the 
revelations of illimitable space and time, of countless 
galaxies and solar systems that cannot be numbered. 
Alike in the macrocosm and microcosm science had 
crossed the border that seemed to divide the relative 
from the absolute, the phenomenal from the eternal. To 
account for the manifestations and attributes of matter, 
invisible units had to be postulated, called atoms, whose 
number baffles all human methods of computation. Al- 
ready the pioneers of physical research had entered the 
realm of the invisible, by assuming a viewless ether as 
the medium of light. Matter in its ultimate analysis 
was found to resolve itself into force which is more akin 
to mind than to matter. All admitted the indubitable 
fact that we know more of mind than of matter ; since we 
know matter only through mind, indirectly ; while mind 
is directly known. Yet, while the world of matter, exter- 
nal nature, became more and more wonderful, man re- 
mained an enigma to science. Objective nature in the 
disclosures of the telescope as well as in those of the 
microscope " appeared a beautiful and harmonious whole, 
the incarnation of a faultless process, from certain 
premises in the past to an inevitable conclusion in the 
future ; "( # ) but subjective nature, the moral world, re- 
mained a chaos. Compared with the astronomical mag- 
nitudes and distances, with the age of the earth and the 
solar system, with the immense, inconceivable periods of 
geologic time, man, with his short span of ephemeral ex- 
istence, dwindled into insignificance. For once, science 
agreed with Scripture in the exclamation : " What is man 
that thou art mindful of him ? " True, science can 
* The Struggle for Existence, by Prof. Huxley. 



PROLOGUE. 3 

only interpret nature in terms of intelligence, and the 
only intelligence on this planet directly known to us is 
human intelligence, but this was considered a product of 
physical organization ; or at best, a phenomenon, corre- 
lated with a nervous system and dependent for its exist- 
ence upon this system. 

The exponent of the theory of evolution, Mr. Herbert 
Spencer, is reported by the Rev. M. J. Savage to have 
said concerning personal immortality, that " he was in- 
clined to doubt ; that is, he was not aware of anything 
that he could regard as satisfactory proof." * 

In saying this, the great philosopher struck the key- 
note of this problem of problems. Satisfactory proof. 
Yes, only this can settle the question. Speculative the- 
ories pro and con, and agnostic assertions there are many 
and may be ranked alongside the beliefs of the various 
religious creeds. What the world wants, however, in our 
age, is present evidence, not evidence adduced from the 
Bible ; evidence obtainable now, obtainable by all who 
rightly seek it. As the Ancient Greeks with their unsur- 
passed acuteness of intellect, made no progress in physical 
science because of preconceptions and assumptions un- 
warranted by facts, so we moderns remained ignorant in 
spiritual science until we resorted to observation and 
experiment, and divested ourselves of similar preconcep- 
tions. 

Mankind is fast outgrowing the childhood of faith ; it 
now wants knowledge, and the demand is amply supplied 
by glorious revelations, not based upon human authority 
as of old, not resting upon faith, but upon demonstrated 
facts. 

The results already obtained constitute a new era for 

* Science and Immortality, Boston, 1887, page 68 



4 PROLOGUE. 

mankind ; an era- as much greater than that of the discov- 
eries of Copernicus and Darwin, Newton and Spencer, 
as mind is greater than matter, and as, in the mental 
world, causes are greater than effects. Nothing less 
than " A new Heaven " is disclosed to our amazing 
view. There is a spiritual evolution as well as a biologi- 
cal evolution. Copernicus discovered the physical heaven ; 
spiritual research discovered the spiritual heaven ; and 
this illustrious discovery will transfigure the earth. For 
human nature will be transformed, even as external nature 
has been transformed. The howling wilderness of human 
strife, selfishness and crime will be changed into a smil- 
ing landscape of human concord and fraternity ; so that 
" the Brotherhood of Man " will no more be a "mere senti- 
mental phrase but an actual fact. Hitherto, nations, races 
and sects could not unite and coalesce, because the spirit- 
ual laws of altruism had not been adequately recognized. 
Even within a nation there were barriers erected between 
the various classes. As Mr. Bellamy points out, the rich 
are divided from the poor, the educated from the unedu- 
cated. But the system expounded by the spiritual philos- 
ophy admits of but One religion, being the science of 
man's spiritual nature, One co-operative fraternity and 
only One. Sectarianism is doomed. All social evils will 
spontaneously redress themselves. Slowly, gradually, but 
surely and irresistibly the Kingdom of God will be inaug- 
urated on earth. Greater than the ideals of Plato and 
More, of Henry George and Edward Bellamy ; greater 
than all Utopias of the past, because based upon the eter- 
nal laws of man's spiritual nature, the system outlined in 
this book is superior to all religious and philosophical 
systems extant in the world. It is nothing less than a 
wiiversal solvent for the theoretical and practical firob- 



PROLOGUE. 5 

/ems of human life. Unlike other systems, it is construct- 
ive, not destructive ; positive, not negative ; it is a grand 
synthesis, wherein all that is true in other systems is 
conserved, and finds its place as part of the great har- 
monious whole. It completes whatever was hitherto in- 
complete, makes clear whatever was vague and indistinct, 
puts knowledge in the place of faith, certitude in the place 
of belief ; brings indubitable facts, and incontrovertible 
evidence accessible to all honest seekers after truth. It 
accredits itself in actually solving the riddle of human ex- 
istence. It comes, to use a Biblical saying, " Not to de- 
stroy, but to fulfill. " Nay, it is no exaggeration to see in 
it the fulfillment of the prophecy of the ancient Seer : 
"When that which is perfect is come, that which is par- 
tial shall be done away." * 

2. This book is addressed primarily to skeptics who 
are seeking after truth. Not all that are skeptical are 
seekers after truth ; many are satisfied with their doubt- 
ing state of mind ; negations seem to please them, at 
least at present. They are in the reactionary state, 
having emancipated themselves from the dogmas of the 
church. Will they ever seek a substitute for what they 
have given up with such alacrity ? Perhaps so, when the 
novelty of skepticism wears off and they anxiously be- 
gin to feel the necessity of "Know Thyself!" the neces- 
sity of finding out the meaning of earthly existence ; and 
whether this life is all, or only a vestibule to a higher 
one. Then, perchance, they will seek and inquire with 
those who exclaim : " Who will show us any good ? " t 
For mere denial is not a satisfactory state of mind ; doubt 
is a means, not at end, an incitement to deeper research. 
Perhaps they are more or less influenced by those learned 
* i Cor. xiii, 10. + Psalm iv., 6. 



6 PROLOGUE. 

men of our time who teach that the problems of human 
life cannot be solved at all, either now or in future. 

Others there are who, breathing the modern atmosphere 
of doubt and unbelief, are infected to such an extent that, 
at any rate, they have virtually given up a good deal of 
what they were taught when young, and they pay no fur- 
ther attention to the subject. They give it no thought at 
all, being engrossed with the practical business of life, 
with the concerns, duties, and cares of their daily occupa- 
tion. Religion they ignore altogether. They may, either 
from mere habit, or from social motives, conform to the 
customs and usages of society ; they may even perform 
the religious ceremonies of their denomination ; may at- 
tend church at stated times, so as not to give offense to 
their neighbors and relatives. Often, self-interest prompts 
men to conform externally to the rites and usages of their 
sect. But in reality they believe nothing and care noth- 
ing for religion. They are what religious people call 
worldly-minded, and grope in spiritual blindness. They 
cannot hope to find the truth, because they do not seek it. 
Such must be left to the influence of time. There are 
trees that will not bloom this season nor the next ; yet 
bloom they will some time in the future. The physical 
and intellectual stages develop quicker than the succeed- 
ing moral and spiritual stages. 

To recapitulate. There is inherent in human nature a 
tendency to rush from extreme to extreme. Having in 
their youth believed much, they now delight in not be- 
lieving anything at all, remaining in a state of reaction, 
or in what is called an agnostic state of mind. 

Now, this book is addressed especially to those who are 
perplexed by doubts and misgivings concerning religion, 
and who are anxious to find out what is true and what 



PROLOGUE. 7 

must be rejected ; to those who seek present evidence ; 
who are not satisfied with the evidence of ancient times ; 
to those who seek a basis for religion, not in faith, but in 
knowledge ; knowledge verifiable by themselves. On the 
other hand, let those abstain from reading this book who 
are absolutely sure in their creed ; who are not in the least 
troubled by any doubt or misgiving ; who firmly believe 
their respective religious system and consider doubt a sin. 
Though the system herein advocated includes all that is 
true in any creed, it cannot but give offense to orthodox 
theologians and to their followers, because its statements 
are not based upon any sacred book nor upon any human 
authority of sage or prophet, but solely upon the spiritual 
laws of human nature. 

No appeal can be successful to those who have a fixed 
creed either in religion or in science. 

3. In regard to the external or logical arrangement of 
this work, the author hesitated long before he came to a 
conclusion ; conscious of the prevalent prejudices against 
the psychic manifestations described in Part Two, he pre- 
ferred to present first the practical deductions from those 
demonstrated facts, in the hope of thus predisposing the 
reader's mind for an unbiased contemplation of the new 
data. 

This being the writer's first experience in book-making, 
he hopes to disarm criticism by stating at once, that he 
lays no claim to literary skill ; but craves, on the contrary, 
the reader's kind indulgence for any shortcomings in style 
and form of composition. 

The Author. 

Bradford, Pa., May, 1893. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 



PART FIRST 

THE FACTS. 



CHAPTER I. 

IMMORTALITY AND THE FUTURE STATE. 

Death is a transformation and re-birth into a higher 
life. Not a transformation of intellect and character, but 
of the outer, physical body into an ethereal body. That 
is to say, the physical body is abandoned by the ego or 
individual, and left to dissolution and decay. Then the 
ethereal or spiritual body which pre-existed forms the 
vehicle of expression for the person we are wont to call 
dead, but who, in reality, has entered from the outer into 
the inner sphere of existence ; having passed out of the 
shadowed, material realm of rudimentary life and ascended 
to the spirit world. The former senses of sight, hearing, 
etc., are now superseded by more exalted modes of cogni- 
tion. The new-born spirit now stands in new and changed 
relations to space and time. Being invested with a 

9 



io THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

thought-body, the transfigured being passes through space 
with the speed of light. No more confined by the body 
of clay, by a material environment ; no more tethered to 
a certain locality, but free to go wherever the spirit listeth, 
the only limitations being now want of knowledge and 
moral deficiency. 

The intellectual and moral character remains what it 
was before the transition, but, as will be shown further 
on, great surprises await the new-comer, either joyful or 
painful. 

Death, then is, negatively, a withdrawal from the phys- 
ical body, and, positively, a birth into a higher life. 

The modus operandi of the death process cannot here be 
described minutely. Suffice it to state that, what is called 
the resurrection, takes place immediately at the death of a 
human being ; that, what is meant by the word is simply 
the withdrawal of the spirit from the tabernacle of flesh, 
and the investing of the individual with a new body. The 
process can be seen by clairvoyant eyes, and has been 
often thus seen. In some of the books of the great 
Seer, A. J. Davis, especially in his, Beyond the Valley, 
drawings are given to illustrate the process. 

The immortality of man is no more a doctrine, a hope, 
a belief, but a demonstrated fact, proved by incontrovert- 
ible evidence, even the evidence of the senses. Hence- 
forth this great and glorious fact of life beyond the grave 
ranks with other indubitable facts, such as the existence of 
the countries of England, France, or Germany. 

" There is a natural (animal) body, Psyche, there is also 
a spiritual body (Pneuma). That which thou thyself 
sowest, is not quickened, except it die : and that which 
thou sowest, thou sowest not the body that shall be, but 
a bare grain, it may chance of wheat, or of some other 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 1 

kind ; but God giveth it a body, and to each seed a body 
of its own. All flesh is not the same flesh ; but there is 
one flesh of men, and another flesh of beasts, and another 
flesh of birds, and another of fishes. There are also ce- 
lestial bodies, and bodies terrestrial ; but the glory of the 
celestial is one, and the glory of the terrestrial is another. 
There is one glory of the sun, and another glory of the 
moon, and another glory of the stars ; for one star diff ereth 
from another star in glory. So also is the resurrection : 
It is sown in dishonor ; it is raised in glory ; it is sown in 
weakness ; it is raised in power ; it is sown a natural 
(animal) body ; it is raised a spiritual body. Howbeit, 
that is not first which is spiritual, but that which is nat- 
ural (animal) then that which is spiritual." # 

" Death," says A. J. Davis, " is the kind and welcome 
servant, who opens the flower-encircled door, to show us 
those whom we love ! 

There is a spiritual, as well as a physical evolution. 
Darwinism describes the lower half of man's progressive 
development, though it is ignorant of the fundamental 
spiritual factors, to which the known, organic factors are 
co-ordinated. Nature, that is, human Nature, " makes for 
righteousness J' The whole universe, though apparently 
unmoral, has a sublime moral purpose and destiny. Nat- 
ure is a tremendous workshop for the ultimate perfection 
of man. When it is alleged by modern scientists that 
nature is neither moral nor immoral, but simply indifferent 
or unmoral, the assertion is true as far as it goes, but it is 
a half-truth and misleading. Nature is a sphinx whose 
riddles man must guess ; she is inexorable, but yields im- 
mediately man becomes her master by overcoming. To 
merely guess the riddles of external nature without guess- 
ing the greater riddle of human nature, is to imitate the 
* i Cor. xv. 



12 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

unfortunate GEdipus. To solve the enigma of our own 
life, is the greater task, and has for its aim to overcome 
our lower nature, and to develop our god-like faculties. 

The extent, magnitude, or scope of the spiritual evolu- 
tion of man cannot now be stated. What has been ad- 
duced here was necessary for the comprehension of what 
is to follow. 

A human life has two stages of growth, one on earth, 
the other in the spiritual world. " As the seed planted in 
the soil has a certain growth beneath the surface of the 
ground, a fuller growth above the surface and fruition 
there, so the spirit has the fruition of its (earthly) embodi- 
ment in the state which follows the separation from the 
body." * 

All men are by nature immortal. There is no condi- 
tional immortality. All human beings, after they leave the 
earthly, or " rudimentary life," enter the higher spiritual 
life inevitably, as the above illustration of plant-life shows. 

We are now prepared to deal with the so-called future 
state, or the life in the hereafter : Death is " a chemical 
screen." f All that is material, all that belongs to the 
animal body is left behind, and the man himself, now 
clothed upon with a spiritual body, enters the spiritual 
sphere. This spiritual body exactly expresses the 
intellectual, and pre-eminently the moral character of the 
ever invisible ego ; is an accurate index of all mental at- 
tainments or shortcomings and perversions. Man now 
stands unmasked, and is either a spirit of light, or a spirit 
of darkness. 

The earthly or material body partly reveals and partly 
conceals the real interior character ; but at death all men 
must unmask ; they now appear as they are ; they now 

* The Soul in Human Embodiments, page 65. t A. J. Davis. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 13 

reap what they had sown, and accordingly are either happy 
or unhappy. As a thermometer registers the degrees of 
heat or cold, so the soul registers moral conduct. The 
book of judgment is within. In the spiritual stage of life, 
we complete what we have begun on earth, but we cannot 
obtain what we have not acquired by our own efforts in 
the earth-life. If we have failed to gain a victory over 
temptation, failed, that is, if we have not attempted at all 
to overcome a besetting sin, we cannot gain that victory 
in a realm where temptation does not exist.* 

A few words as to the mode of life and activity in the 
hereafter. On earth the greater part of time is spent, in 
our age at least, as in the past, in procuring the necessaries 
of physical life, in ministering to the body, to supply its 
manifold wants, notably food, clothing and shelter. 

In the spiritual state external wants are easily supplied, 
and the main efforts are in the direction of mental and 
moral growth and active beneficence. 

Again, a third of our earthly life is spent in sleep, some 
portion of our time is wasted or lost by sickness and other 
occurrences and accidents ; we are also dependent upon 
the health and vitality of the body in our striving after 
mental achievements. But in the higher spiritual exist- 
ence these conditions and hindrances do not prevail, and 
hence, life is more vivid, more active, and, as has been 
already stated in the preceding chapter, incomparably 
more free, free from the limitations incident to earthly life. 
It is perhaps unnecessary to state, what is implied in the 
foregoing, and what the reader will by this time have an- 
ticipated, namely, the glorious fact that on entering the 
spiritual realm, we meet those that have gone before. 
These transfigured beings make preparation for our recep- 

* The Soul, page 68. 



14 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

tion, when we are born through death into the spirit world, 
just as preparations are made for the birth of a child into 
the material world.* Tears of joy above for the tears 
of sorrow below. Oh, blissful, glorious meeting of those 
who had been seemingly parted for a while, yet in reality 
were not separated. 

* See Davis' Great Harmonia, vol. I, page 168. 



THE RELIGION OE THE EUTURE. 



CHAPTER II. 

THE ORIGIN OF MAN. 

The human mind is neither the product of the bodily 
organization, nor is the body, strictly speaking, the pro- 
duct of the mind, for both mind and body are the creative 
product of the spirit. This spirit is itself derived from the 
soul. It is the soul which is the real Ego, the full entity, 
which never had a beginning, being uncreate and eternal. 
As modern physical science is based upon the axiom that 
matter and force are indestructible ; that not a particle 
can be created or can disappear, so spiritual science rests 
upon the axiom that individuality is indestructible. Soul 
being eternal, never had a beginning in time, and never 
will come to an end. The soul, as soul, ever remains in 
a deific state ; but employs the spirit in order to express 
itself through matter. 

The spirit creates the earthly personality, body and mind. 
Mind is spirit, matter-limited. " Mind is the conscious- 
ness of the soul, acting through spirit upon the human 
organism, producing the process of thought, the most ex- 
ternal expression of soul." * The spirit presides over 
the formation of the body ; it does not create the matter, 
of which the body is composed, nor the organic laws. 
Creation belongs to the Deity. As one superintends the 
building of a house he is to inhabit, or the manufacture of 

* The Soul, page 7. 



1 6 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

a garment which he is to wear,* so the spirit superin- 
tends the formation of the body. Man is an incarnation. 
The evolution of man as an eternal spirit is preceded by 
involution. Whatever is evolved must have first been in- 
volved ; whatever is unfolded must have previously been 
infolded. The seed from which the plant is evolved, con- 
tains potentially the stalk, leaves, buds, blossoms and fruit. 
All growth is from within, but the necessary conditions 
must be given. Soul descends by involution to meet mat- 
ter. It is a downward process as gradual as evolution, 
and the point of contact is the embodiment called man. 

" The action of the spirit of man is no more complex, 
no more difficult of understanding, though more subtle in 
its various effects upon the human system, than a point of 
light, that radiates from a center to a great distance. 
Many rays form a large circle, and yet all the rays maybe 
traced by each single and separate ray to the one central 
point of light." f " The spirit does not dwell within the 
body, any more than the performer on the musical instru- 
ment dwells within the instrument. The spirit is outside 
of the body, but adapted to it so far as it is in rapport with 
the body. So far as there is disease, the spirit is not pres- 
ent in full action — has lost its control, precisely upon the 
same principle that a musical performer would lose con- 
trol of the instrument when One of the keys were out of 
order." % 

The physical body is, however, not the only product of 
the spirit, as was stated in the preceding sections. The 
immortal being called man undergoes many transforma- 
tions during his evolution or eternal progression. Here it 
is only now necessary to add, that in the new psychology, 

* Psychopathy, page 38. t Psychopathy, page 20. 

\ Flashes of Light, page 55. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 17 

soul is not only the thinking principle in man, but likewise 
the formative or organizing principle.* 

" The individual expression of the soul is under the 
government of the individual soul, while the whole life of 
the universe is under the government of God, the soul of 
the universe". What the soul shall express belongs to its 
individual choice and to its individual life under God." 
" The soul is a revelation unto outward nature. No ex- 
ternal thing can reveal God. The soul alone, being of the 
nature of God, perceives God." " As confidently may you 
turn to that soul as the source of all possibilities, as the 
atom turns unto the Sun as the source of all light." t 

Finally, it is necessary to remark that in the new psy- 
chology the terms mind, spirit, soul, have each a definite, 
fixed meaning, and cannot be used one for the other, as 
loosely as of old. Throughout this treatise these words 
will be used in accordance with the above definitions. 

Both the force called matter and the consciousness 
known to us called mind, are products of a third essence 
called spirit, of which mind and matter are different mani- 
festations. " Spirit includes force and force includes 
matter." 

* See " Die Monistische Seelenlehre," by Carl du Prel. 
f The Soul, page 9 to 15. 



1 8 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



CHAPTER III. 



THE DESTINY OF MAN. 



Man, as we know him on earth, is a strange creature, 
half animal, half human. But he is destined to attain a 
height so inconceivably superior to his present state, that 
we can only refer to analogous changes in his past. 
Compare an utter savage with a Sir Isaac Newton, or a 
cannibal with a Goethe or Shakespeare ! Not only will 
man, even on earth, in ages to come, have gained im- 
measurably more dominion over material nature, but he 
will develop mental powers that will make of him an 
angelic, celestial being, a very creator in miniature, as it 
were, for God is the infinite Creator. Man ever remains 
a finite being, though he become angelic and god-like. 
But his growth will be gradual ; for in spiritual, as well as 
in physical evolution there are no sudden jumps or leaps ; 
his progressive development taking place by imperceptible 
steps. We cannot see a tree grow ; yet we know that the 
mighty oak tree was once an acorn. To assume that 
man as we see him on earth is the highest creature on 
the planet, the goal and apex of organic life ; the epitome 
of all below him, the crown and glory of earthly creation, 
is one thing, being true ; but to imagine him to be the 
only, or the highest rational being in the universe, is 
another thing, and utterly erroneous, nay, irrational, even 
in the light of his past evolution. As irrational, as if 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



*9 



minnows in a brook believed that they were the only 
living creatures in the world, being confined to their 
native element and limited surroundings, and having no 
experience of terrestrial and aerial life. " In the ages yet 
to be, the men of this earth will reach such sublime 
heights, degrees and grades of development, that, to even 
a very exalted mind, they will infinitely surpass the most 
magnificent conceptions it now has of even a God ; yet 
that will be but the beginning of further unfoldings. But, 
while this will be true of men yet encased in the flesh 
here on earth, it will be as nothing compared to man's ad- 
vancement in the aromal worlds above." * 

" In the light of revelation, I proclaim the existence of 
entire orders, kingdoms, empires and republics of Gods : 
derivative, not original ; personal, not universal ; local, 
not omnipresent ; powerful, not almighty. Doubtless 
there are millions of Gods, but they all depend upon One 
great and unfathomable Over-Soul ; one great and all 
pervasive and persuasive essence." f 

The reader will perceive in what sense the word God 
is used in this quotation. Ordinarily, our conception of 
God is merely highly exalted human nature, and each 
person's God is according to that person's mental and 
moral altitude or ideal. Though man is called the image 
of God, it is undeniable, that God, as conceived by men, 
is an image of man. Whether we call the future exalted 
being angel, archangel, or God, it is understood that we 
use these names to express what is beyond our capacity 
to comprehend, namely, glorified human beings, beings 
that have overcome worlds and that are transfigured and 
irradiated through wisdom and love. Yet all these, how- 
ever exalted, were once lowly men and women such as we 

* After Death, by P. B. Randolph, page 36. t Ibid, page 35. 



20 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

are to-day. It is the spiritual evolution of man, the pro- 
gressive development through aeons and aeons to his divine 
destiny. Man descends from the angelic state to matter 
through involution, and ascends from matter to angelhood 
through evolution. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 21 



CHAPTER IV. 

THE DUAL NATURE OF MAN. 

We have already mentioned man's twofold constitution, 
the physical, body and the spiritual body. The spiritual 
body pre-exists, ready to take the place of the outer form, 
at whatever time the change occurs which we call death. 
" There is a natural (animal) body," it is said in the 
passage quoted in Chapter I., " and there is (not there will 
be), a spiritual body." That is to say, the spiritual body 
is co-existent with the fleshly body ; is not created or 
formed at death, but has existed all along during the 
earthly life. In virtue of this double nature, man is a 
denizen of two worlds, not successively, but simulta- 
neously. His material organism is the instrument that 
unites him to, and enables him to act in, the material 
plane, or earth-life ; while his spiritual body unites him 
with the spiritual plane. Thus man is living in two 
spheres at the same time. To borrow an illustration of 
A. P. Sinnett, as a vessel is placed in two mediums, water 
and air, is acted upon below by one element, being 
immersed in water, and above is acted upon by another 
element, the wind, to which the sails respond, so man 
lives in two mediums, acts in, and is acted upon, by each 
simultaneously, * though, ordinarily, he is more or less 
unconscious of his connection with the spiritual realm. 

* The Rationale of Mesmerism, page 99. 



22 THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 

" Man, as a spiritual entity, is now and always in the 
spiritual world." Strictly speaking " we never are em- 
bodied ; we live now and ever in the spiritual state, 
but the soul gives forth various impulses, which pro- 
duce forms, and endows them with more or less per- 
fection." * 

"The story of Pygmalion and Galatea, in which the 
statue comes to life and is made to speak, is illustrative 
of the truth of spiritual evolution. The sculptor produces 
a marble form by means of his intellect and affections, 
which somewhat embodies his ideal ; he breathes his life 
into the work of his own hands ; it could never become 
himself : still the statue was made to breathe. Man's 
outward form can have no life in itself. But it is an 
animated statue made by the soul ; it is will and affection 
manifest in form. We may even fancy the soul's animated 
statue to have a wavering, wandering will of its own, 
which often knows better than it does." f 

The concluding words of this illustration bring us to a 
point which must be now discussed. The dual nature of 
man is not fully explained by tracing immoral conduct to 
its supposed origin, namely to the animal body, and 
referring conscience to the mind ; for the mind of man 
is itself now the ally of conscience, and now the ally of 
the lower propensities. To see in temptation only a 
struggle between matter and mind is obviously a super- 
ficial view of the matter. The intellect itself may be, and 
often is, divided in its allegiance. The intellect, the 
emotions and the will, may aid and abet the lower nature, 
may attempt, after an evil deed, to extenuate, to excuse, 
by what we call sophistical reasoning, and this may be 

* Studies in Theosophy, by W. J. Colville, page 190. 
t Ibid, page 189. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 23 

done, and is often done, in good faith, in the sincere belief 
that the evil act is justifiable. 

" Though, as a rule, it may be said that men do wrong 
in spite of the warnings of conscience. Our ideals are 
very far from being realized and we somehow fall short 
in our conduct. " What men themselves recognize as 
duty, they continually disobey, and what, according to 
their own standard, they acknowledge to be wrong, they 
continually do." * 

We speak of the higher self and the lower self, yet we 
must assume man to be one individual. 

The new psychology confirms the statement of Saint 
Paul f that there is conjoined in man a sensuous in- 
tellect and a pure spiritual mentality. The former he 
calls Psyche, the latter he calls Pnenma. By psyche is 
meant the natural man, the animal-souled man, and by 
pneuma, the spiritual man. Now, man's task on earth is 
to overcome the solicitations of his lower nature, to gain 
the victory over temptation, and this constitutes one 
main factor in his spiritual evolution. The antagonism 
between sensual propensities and spiritual promptings, 
between selfishness and benevolence, causes the conflict 
so graphically described by the apostle : " For we know 

that the law is spiritual ; but I am carnal 

For not what I would do I practice : but what I hate, 
that I do. But if I do that what I would not, I admit 
that the law is good. So now it is no more I that do it, 
but sin which dwelleth in me. For the good, which I 
would, I do not ; but the evil which I would not, that I 
practice. For I delight in the law of God after the 
inward man ; but I see a different law in my members, 

* The Unity of Nature, by the Duke of Argyll, chap. vi. 
t 1 Cor., xv. 45, et seq. 



24 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into 
captivity. wretched man that I am ! " * 

In Galatians, chapter v., we read : " For the flesh 
lusteth against the spirit, and the spirit against the flesh ; 
for these are contrary the one to the other." 

The unprejudiced reader will at once perceive that a 
devil, an outside tempter, is wholly superfluous, the tempta- 
tion being inherent in the very nature of man. To use a 
Biblical phrase in its true signification, we may say : Man 
in his progressive spiritual evolution must " eat from the 
tree of knowledge," must necessarily be tempted ; must at 
one time or another eat forbidden fruit, that his eyes be 
opened, and he learn to discern good and evil. Man 
must buy his experience, and by stumbling learn to walk. 
He learns from every blunder, profits from every defeat, 
grows stronger as he copes with the enemy, and ultimate- 
ly overcomes all solicitations of his lower nature. 

* Romans, vii, 14-24. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 25 



CHAPTER V. 

GLIMPSES OF THE HIGHER SELF. 

Though man lives in two media, he is ordinarily more 
or less unconscious of the influence of the higher. 
Normally, man feels himself to be One, not a double 
being, and justly so, for the spirit-vitality is all there is of 
life, and the spirit-consciousness is all there is of mind. 
Withdraw the spirit and death ensues. Yet there is a 
lower and a higher consciousness. The lower is of the 
earth, earthy ; the higher is the enduring, immortal self- 
hood. The higher includes the lower, but the lower is, 
as said above, generally more or less unconscious of the 
higher. " There is," says A. J. Davis, " an external and 
corporeal memory, and a memory also, which is wholly 
internal and spiritual. The former is a tablet whereon 
the world, of matter and sensuous objects write the 
evanescent impressions of their panoramic existence ; the 
latter is the soul's sanctum sanctorum, wherein are de- 
posited, as imperishable jewels in a casket which none 
but the possessor can open, the spirit of things, of all im- 
pressions, of all useful experiences. The most delicate 
perfume of Thought is thus treasured up, while the body 
of that thought is impressed upon the external memory, a 
lifeless mass of material, to be laid aside with its tablet in 
the tomb. But on the internal memory, the faintest lines 
of a spiritual reality produce the most permanent impres- 



26 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

sions. And yet, in this life, the corporeal faculty is so 
constantly called into requisition and exercise, that with 
but rare exceptions, the mind's most interior experiences 
are seldom remembered." * 

"The senses of the body," says a high authority, " take 
cognizance of the things of this world, the objective and 
material life. The senses of the spirit take cognizance of 
both worlds, live in the inner life, and understand what is 
being done in the external life." f 

One more quotation from the same source shall here 
be inserted : " Every individual possesses a double in- 
dividuality, one belonging to the inner and one to the 
outer life. The latter is the result of physique, educa- 
tion : the former of divine inspiration. They are separate 
and distinct from each other ; although while in the body 
they hold the closest relationship to each other, yet there 
is a distinct dividing line ever running between them 

And they are perpetually at war with each 

other, because they are two opposites, and in chemistry 
when two opposites are brought together, there is violent 
action, opposition." X 

I have said that, ordinarily and normally, we are 
scarcely aware of this duality ; but when the equilibrium 
is disturbed, as in the state of temptation, for instance, 
we become conscious of our dual nature. The following 
cases will illustrate this, and disclose at once two great 
characteristics of the activity of the higher conscious- 
ness, namely, its activity is more conspicuous, the more 
the lower consciousness is inactive, or in abeyance ; and 
it stands in different relations to time and space. " Fech- 
ner reports the case of a lady who fell into the water and 

* The Inner Life, page 225. f Flashes of Light, page 263. 

% Flashes of Light, page 292. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 27 

came near being drowned. From the moment when all 
bodily motions ceased, until she was drawn out of the water, 
about two minutes elapsed, during which, according to 
her own statement, she lived over again her whole past 
life, the most insignificant details of which presented 
themselves before her mental vision." * 

Admiral Beaufort relates from his own experience the 
following incident, in which the events of a life-time were 
reviewed in memory within a very few minutes. He fell 
into the water, and had already lost consciousness. " In 
this condition there was such intense mental activity, one 
thought following another with such rapidity, that the 
process is not only indescribable, but surely also incon- 
ceivable by one who never passed through a similar ex- 
perience." First, the immediate consequences of his 
death for his family presented themselves ; then his reflec- 
tions turned to his past life ; he repeated his last crusade, 
a former voyage and shipwreck, his time spent in school, 
the progress he made in his studies, and the time he 
wasted, even all his juvenile voyages and adventures. 
" Thus travelling backwards, I seemed to pass through 
every incident of my past life in retrogressive succession ; 
but not in mere outlines did I view these, for I beheld 
them as a completely elaborated picture, with all, even 
the minutest features and incidental circumstances; in 
short, the whole period of my past life appeared in a kind 
of panoramic survey before the mirror of my soul, and 
every scene seemed accompanied by a consciousness of 
right and wrong, or a certain reflection as to cause 
and effect ; indeed, some trifling occurrences, which I had 
forgotten long ago, now loomed up and appeared, more- 
over, as if they had only happened a little while ago." \ 

* Philosophic der Mystic, by Carl du Prel, page 78. t Ibid. 



28 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

It is obvious, then, that the line dividing the mind from 
the spirit is not fixed or immovable. By mind the new 
psychology understands the consciousness of the spirit 
focalized in the human organism, producing " the most 
external expression of the soul." This is the earthly 
phenomenal personality, which in the old psychology is 
the whole ego. But it is incontestably proved that man 
is Janus-faced.'* The lower consciousness is limited, is 
derived from the higher, and both are united and blended, 
so that ordinarily, the lower is unconscious of the higher ; 
but whenever this unity is disturbed, as in the conflict of 
temptation, or in the cases mentioned, the higher asserts 
itself unmistakably, and predominates exactly in the pro- 
portion, in which the lower is suppressed. There are, 
however, individuals in whom the two natures are more 
loosely combined, as it were, and who, accordingly, are 
clearly conscious of the influence of the spirit or higher 
self, as we shall see further on. Owing to a peculiar sensi- 
tive, nervous organization, these persons manifest excep- 
tional transcendental powers. 

A hundred years ago, the German philosopher Kant 
uttered intuitively this prediction : " It will yet be proved 
at some future time, I know not where or when, that the 
human soul, even in this life, is indissolubly united with 
all immaterial entities in the Spirit world, that the soul 
alternately acts in the Spirit realm, and receives from this 
realm influences, of which man however is unaware, as 
long as everything is all right with him. f 

In the following chapter will be seen how gloriously 
this prediction is fulfilled to-day, in a degree perhaps 
hardly inticipated by the Sage of Koenigsberg. 

* See Phil. d. Mystic, by du Prel, page 378. 

t Kant, as quoted by du Prel, Phil. d. Mystik, page 446. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 29 



CHAPTER VI. 

TRANSCENDENTAL POWERS IN MAN. 

The spiritual evolution of man begins low down at the 
foot of the ladder, in physical life. Brute force and cun- 
ning are the weapons used in physical conquest. Next 
comes the intellectual life, more or less employed by the 
lower, selfish half of man's nature, engaged in accumulat- 
ing wealth, in scientific achievements and explorations, 
but on the whole, unsanctified by the higher spiritual ele- 
ment. The next, third stage in man's evolution, will be 
the spiritual, which as yet is in embryo in the majority of 
human beings on earth. The mere intellect, the natural 
or animal-souled man, as Saint Paul calls him, has hitherto 
been engaged mainly in subduing external forces ; in 
conquests over objective nature ; conquests for self, for 
the lower self. But in the next stage of spiritual evolu- 
tion he will subdue human nature, the lower, selfish pro- 
pensities. The victory will then be not merely for self, 
but over self.* The dormant spiritual faculties in man 
will unfold themselves, and man's subjective, inner, im- 
mortal nature, will be found more wonderful than all 
the tremendous forces of objective nature. As has been 
said : " Nothing on earth is great but man, and nothing 
in man is great but mind. " If we substitute for the word 
mind here, spirit, the saying is more correct. 
* See The Soul, pages 34-46. 



30 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Thus, spiritual evolution begins, where science and 
philosophy pause ; science as represented by Darwin, and 
philosophy as represented by Spencer.* 

Mere intellect is blossom, the fruit of which is often 
poisonous, producing " the works of the flesh ; " "But 
the fruit of the spirit, is love, joy, peace, long suffering, 
kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, temperance." t 

Surely, man possesses now the germs of these divine 
qualities. Nay, he already manifests them in some de- 
gree in the relations of family life. Thus, while man 
shows in his constitution lower traits, survivals of past 
stages of development, he likewise shows indications of 
future higher stages, and reveals glimpses of what he will 
become in future in this earth-life, glimpses likewise of the 
higher life to which he is transferred after death. 

Man's mind has grown gradually, from the infantile 
intellect of the savage, to the attainments of civilized 
modern thought. In his future progressive growth he 
will develop new, hitherto unsuspected faculties ; facul- 
ties the world has in past ages called and even now calls 
abnormal, miraculous, supernatural, occult ; faculties 
as natural as his other familiar mental powers. As in the 
wonders of nature and art, such as the motions of the 
heavenly, bocfr&s* in space, or the inventions of the 
steam-engine and telegraph, we see only natural forces 
and results of man's mental inventive powers, so any man- 
ifestations of man's future higher faculties must be 
called natural, not supernatural, normal not miraculous. 
For these faculties, however hidden apparently, lay latent 
in man's psychic nature. And, throughout history in all 

* See Biology, by Herbert Spencer, vol. ii., par. 372, page 495, and 
The Destiny of Man, by John Fiske, page 26. 
t Galatians v. 22-24. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



31 



ages, and in every region where men lived, there were man- 
ifested, here and there, transcendental powers. Such 
powers are pre-eminently developing themselves in our 
age, and are as natural and normal in man's progressive de- 
velopment, as the more familiar mental faculties that were 
developed in his past stages of growth. What was hitherto 
called abnormal is seen to be a normal product of evo- 
lution. The thing, or phenomenon inexplicable to the 
orthodox science of our time, from the standpoint of 
scientific text-books, is simply an effect of a cause, as 
yet unknown ; it is governed by a force or law not yet 
discovered in the old way of research. 

Let us then, on the threshold, and before entering 
the great realm of transcendental forces declare, once 
for all, that what men heretofore have with bated breath, 
and feelings of mystery and awe, called occult or miracu- 
lous, the new psychology simply considers as effects, pro- 
duced by agencies unknown by the current science. 
Unknown, not unknowable, natural not supernatural, nor- 
mal not abnormal. 

Yet, if men insist upon calling these phenomena super- 
natural, there is no objection, provided they mean by 
the word that what transcends the known laws of nature, 
what is above and beyond the natural forces known to 
the orthodox science of the day. 

In this sense the term occult \s also no't inappropriate ; 
while it was recently suggested by an investigator, to call 
the transcendental powers in man supernormal. 

An enumeration of some of these powers is now in 
order. 



32 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 



CHAPTER VII. 

SLEEP-PHENOMENA. 

The spirit is the life in man ; if the spirit withdraws, 
there is death. It acts upon the organism " through the 
generation and distribution of the vitalizing force ; as a 
telegraph operator, having arranged his apparatus and 
system of wires and connections, does not need to be at 
every point personally, but only at the central point, so 
the spirit has centered its powers in the brain." * The 
front brain, or cerebrum, is the center of all vol- 
untary functions of body and mind. The back brain, 
or cerebellum, controls and guides the involuntary func- 
tions, such as respiration, digestion, circulation, assimila- 
tion and secretion. These organic processes, called 
sometimes vegetative functions, go on unconsciously j for, 
normally, the mind does not control them. But the spirit 
does, not directly, but indirectly, having delegated the 
control to the posterior brain. During sleep the voluntary 
functions are suspended, while the involuntary processes 
continue. The waste of the body is repaired and re- 
cuperation of the whole organism takes place. A third of 
our life on earth is spent in sleep. 

During this state the brain proper, the cerebrum, ought 
to rest ; all its functions ought to be suspended. I say 
ought to be ; for " in perfect sleep all the faculties of the 

* Psychopathy, by Dr. Rush, page 45. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 7>Z 

mind are in repose." But perfect sleep is comparatively 
rare. The psychic waves, more or less agitated during 
the waking state, have not subsided completely and we — 
dream. These dreams in which the brain proper, the 
organ of mind, is improperly active, are, as a general rule, 
devoid of logical coherence, are more or less meaningless, 
and even irrational and absurd. We remember many 
such dreams, after awaking, because they are products of 
the brain, the organ of thought in the waking state. But 
in perfect sleep, when the mind is in complete repose, the 
spirit becomes relatively free, and can act in its own realm, 
and is acted upon. It can then have visions, and behold 
scenes, which on awaking, cannot be remembered by the 
mind, in the great majority of instances. How then can 
we know that the spirit is active, if we cannot remember ? 
During such profound, sound sleep, do we yet dream at 
all ? Here the new method of research comes to our 
help.* Somnambulists act their dreams, as the word 
sleep-walker signifies. With closed eyes they walk and 
avoid obstacles, write, or sew, or are engaged in other 
occupations. " A young clergyman was in the habit of 
rising from his bed and writing his sermons while asleep. 
When he had written a page, he would read it aloud and 
correct it. The Archbishop of Bordeaux is authority for 
this narrative. Once in altering the expression " ce devin 
enfant, he substituted the word " adorable " for " devin" 
which, commencing with a vowel, required that " ce" before 
it should be changed to " cet ; " he accordingly added the 
" /." While he was writing the archbishop held a piece of 
pasteboard under his chin to prevent him seeing what he 



See du Prel, Phil, der Mystik, pages 36-44. 



34 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

was writing, but he went on without being in the least 
incommoded. The paper on which he was writing was 
removed and another piece substituted, but he at once 
perceived the change. He also wrote pieces of music 
with his eyes closed. He once wrote the words under 
the notes too large, but discovering his mistake, he erased 
and rewrote them. He certainly did not see with his eyes, 
and yet the vision was perfect." * W. B. Carpenter quotes 
the following from Abercrombie's Intellectual Powers. 
The reader will note that in the case now to be related, 
the intellectual work done by the spirit during sleep was 
afterwards remembered as a dream. " An eminent 
Scottish lawyer had been consulted respecting a case of 
great importance and much difficulty ; and he had been 
studying it with intense anxiety and attention. After 
several days had been occupied in this manner, he was 
observed by his wife to rise from his bed in the night, 
and go to a writing-desk which stood in the bedroom. 
He then sat down, and wrote a long paper which he care- 
fully put by in his desk, and returned to bed. The 
following morning he told his wife that he had had a most 
interesting dream ; — that he had dreamt of delivering a 
clear and luminous opinion respecting a case which had 
exceedingly perplexed him ; and that he would give any- 
thing to recover the train of thought which had passed 
before him in his dream. She then directed him to the 
writing-desk, where he found the opinion fully and clearly 
written out ; and this was afterwards found to be perfectly 
correct." f 

The reader will now be prepared to go a step further, 
and observe how science has succeeded first, in inducing 

* Psychic Studies, by Hudson Tuttle, page 50. 

t Mental Physiology, by W. B. Carpenter, page 593. 



THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 35 

very deep sleep, second, in making the sleeper talk and give 
information concerning his mental activity. For the deep 
sleep can be induced by mesmeric passes ; is called the 
magnetic sleep, being caused by a subtle, invisible, but 
potent either or magnetic fluid proceeding from the 
operator. 

Mr. A. P. Sinnet, speaking of a Paris professor, J. J. 
A. Ricard, who published in 1841 a volume entitled 
" Traite theorique et pratique du Magnetisme Animal" con- 
tinues as follows : " He gives a very full account of his 
first experience in this region of inquiry with a girl named 
Adcle Lcfrey, who exhibited a new kind of lucidity at the 
conclusion of some curative treatment received at her 
mesmerist's hands. M. Ricard's Adele said to him words 
conveying exactly the same ideas which I have heard 
uttered by sensitives under my own influence, young girls 
to whom the A B C of mesmerism as a branch of knowl- 
edge was wholly unknown. It may be worth while here 
to translate a short passage. M. Ricard writes : She 
was near the completion of her cure, when in the midst of 
some new medical instructions which he was giving, she 
said to me in a singular tone, " You hear what he orders 
me?" " Who," I asked, "is ordering you anything?" 
" Why, monsieur, do you not hear him? " " No, I neither 
hear nor see any one.-" " Ah, that is true," she replied, 
" you sleep while I am awake." " What do you mean ? 
You dream, my child ; you pretend that I sleep, when I 
have my eyes open and I can appreciate all that passes 
before me, while I know that I actually hold you in com- 
mand by my magnetic influence, and that it only depends 
upon my will to bring you back to the state you were in 
recently. You believe yourself awake because you speak 
to me, and you have to a certain extent your free will, 



36 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

although you could not open your eyelids, and might be 
plunged in an instant into the most profound slumber. 
You do not reflect upon what you are saying." " You do 
not understand me, monsieur, but that is nothing surpris- 
ing." "You are asleep," I replied. "I am, on the con- 
trary, as completely awake as we shall all be some day in 
the future. I will explain myself more clearly ; all that 
you see at present is gross, material ; you distinguish ap- 
parent forms ; the real beauties escape you. How could 
it be otherwise ? Your spirit is cramped, obscured, by the 
exterior impressions that your material senses give you. 
It can only reach out feebly, while my corporeal sensations 
are actually annihilated, while my soul is almost disinte- 
grated from its ordinary fetters. I see what is invisible to 
your eyes, I hear what your ears cannot hear, I understand 
what for you is incomprehensible. For example, you do 
not see what emanates from yourself and comes to me when 
you magnetize me ; I, on the contrary, see it very clearly ; 
at each pass you direct toward me I see a little column of 
fiery dust which comes from the end of your fingers, and 
seems to incorporate itself in me. Then when you isolate 
me, I seem surrounded by an atmosphere of this fiery 
dust, which is often the reason why objects of which I seek 
to distinguish the forms, take a ruddy tinge for me. I 
hear, when I desire it, a sound that is made at a distance, 
sounds which may arise a hundred leagues from here. In 
a word, I am not obliged to wait till things come to me, I 
can go to them wherever they are, and appreciate them 
more correctly than any one could who is not in a similar 
state to that in which I find myself." * 

I will only add here that clairvoyance, of which I shall 
speak further on, is not " merely a pathological condition," 
* The Rationale of Mesmerism, page 52. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



37 



or, in other words, it is not induced or occasioned only 
by sickness or any morbid affection, though illness may 
very often produce the sensitive condition. A condition 
is not a cause. To use Du Prel's apt illustration : The 
darkness after sunset is not the cause of the appearance 
of the stars, it is only the necessary condition for our 
ability to see them ; they were in the sky before ; the 
darkness only makes them visible to us ; they are always 
there, but are invisible to us in daytime. There are 
many occasions when the interior activity of the spirit is 
disclosed, independently of cerebration or brain-activity. 
One of these occasions or conditions is very deep sleep, 
in which " the Ego becomes liberated." 

I conclude this chapter with a quotation from a recent 
lecture of Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond : " During sleep, 
when the body yields to the law of rest, and the brain 
must have repose, do you suppose the spirit sleeps ? If 
the spirit can sleep one millionth part of a second, anni- 
hilation is possible. But when the power of law makes 
the body glad to sleep, the inverse action of the spirit 
makes the spirit glad, for the time, to be free. It is in 
the realms of dreams or of dreamless sleep, where the 
consciousness of the spirit is supreme, and the spirit exists 
separate from the form, and it has power of its own in a 
realm of its own. When finally these physical forms are 
cast aside, and the dim veil that divides the spirit while 
in this world from the realm of spiritual existence, as 
spirits you will say : ' Why, this is all familiar, I have 
known about this before.' And you will discover that 
about one-third of the time of your so-called natural exist- 
ence, your consciousness has been in the realm of spirit 
after all, and that even while pervading your bodies with 
what you think is all of your consciousness, there is a large 



38 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

share of your consciousness that is not employed in the 
mechanical duties of daily life." # 

This is the reason sound sleep is so refreshing, so re- 
cuperating, after the toil, the wear and tear of the day. 
We could not, perhaps, endure the hardships and sorrows 
of life, if our spirit could not periodically bathe in the 
celestial ether, and breathe the fragrance of immortal 
flowers. 

Truly all men have at times visions ; all men hear at 
times the music of the spheres, as is already said in the 
thirty-third chapter of the Book of Job : "Ina dream, in 
a vision of the night, when deep sleep falleth upon men, 
in slumberings upon the bed ; then he opened the ears of 
men." 

Of the bearings of this upon the visions recorded in the 
Bible, I shall speak in a succeeding chapter. 

* The Celestial Regions, a lecture printed in "The Progressive 
Thinker," June 25, 1892. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 



39 



CHAPTER VIII. 

EXCURSIONS OF THE SPIRIT. 

The spirit is the man or woman, not the body. The 
relation subsisting between spirit and body is, as already 
mentioned, as the relation between a musician and his 
instrument, while playing. The only difference is, that 
whereas, the musician is never blended with the instru- 
ment, but exists apart, visibty, the spirit is intimately 
joined to the body, so much so, that, though it can vacate 
it temporarily and return to it, it is during such times of 
absence still united with the body, by what may be called 
a magnetic cord. If, during the spirit's excursion, this 
magnetic cord should snap, death would ensue. " I 
learned," says the great seer, A. J. Davis, while in the 
clairvoyant state, " that the correspondence between the 
birth of a child into this world, and the birth of the spirit 
from the material body into a higher world, is absolute and 
complete — even to the umbilical cord. . . . The umbilical 
life-cord, of which I speak, is sometimes not severed, but 
is drawn out into the finest possible medium of sympa- 
thetic connection between the body and the spirit. This 
is invariably the case when individuals apparently die, 
and, after being absent for a few days or hours, return, 
as from a peaceful journey, to relate their spiritual expe- 
riences. Such phenomena are modernly termed Trances, 
Catalepsy, Somnambulism and spiritual Extasis. There 



40 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

are many different stages, or divisions, and subdivisions, 
of these states. But when the spirit is arrested in its 
flight from the body, and when it is held in a transitional 
or mediatorial state, for only a few hours or minutes, then 
the mind seldom retains a recollection of its experience. 

It is when the spirit entirely leaves the body — 

only retaining proprietorship over it, through the medium 
of the unsevered umbilical thread of electric wire, as it 
might be called — that the soul is enabled to abandon its 
earthly tenement and interests, for many hours or days, 
and afterwards, to return to the earth — laden with bright 
and happy memories." * 

Before relating some typical instances of this kind, it is 
necessary here to call attention to what is generally called 
the double : the Doppelgcenger, the Germans call it. It ap- 
pears that in many cases of this sort, the so-called double 
is a mere phantom projected unconsciously. " Byron was 
informed by Sir Robert Peel, that he was seen by the lat- 
ter in 1810 on St. James Street. The poet knew that his 
counterpart often appeared. Two days after, Peel again 
saw Byron's double on the street, and showed it to By- 
ron's brother, who immediately recognized the phantom. 
Among those who inquired after the health of the king — 
who was then insane — and who wrote their names into a 
list, Byron's double was seen signing the name. Byron 
lay at the time in a violent fever at Patras, in Greece. " I 
do not doubt," he writes, "that we may, through some un- 
known process, appear to be double, but which of the two 
is at this moment the real person, I leave to you to decide. 
The only thing that I hope and wish is, that my second 
self behave like a gentleman." f 

* The Great Harmonia, vol. i., page 168. 

t Die Monistische Seelenlehre, by du Prel, page 172. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 41 

It seems that when some persons think intently, or yearn 
for a distant person or thing, their double appears at or 
near the object of their thought or feeling. This, by the 
way, is the philosophy of wraiths, or " the apparition of a 
person in his exact likeness " at the moment of death or a 
little after. An amusing instance of a double is given in 
the Archiv fur thierischen Magnetismus : " Peter Mueller, 
from the parish of Enge on the Langenberg, was driven 
by his coachman to church one Sunday morning to attend 
the Lord's Supper. The driver rode back home immedi- 
ately and unhitched the horses. When bringing them into 
the stable he saw in it his master in his dressing-gown and 
slippers, his head covered with a white cap — as was his ha- 
bitual morning attire — walking slowly to and fro, with the 
face turned toward the cattle. This vision had a bad 
effect upon the hostler, so that he remained long in a per- 
turbed state of mind. The master, on being taken home 
again from church, noticed the change in his driver's face, 
but it was only after coming home, and in response to an 
urgent command, that the servant told him what he had 
seen. Immediately the .team was made ready again, and 
once more the master visited his friend, the pastor Hin- 
richsen at Leek, who closely questioned the coachman 
concerning the hour at which he saw the apparition. It 
turned out that it was exactly the time when the Lord's 
Supper was administered. " Now, then," said the pastor 
to Mueller, " tell me frankly to what your thoughts were 
directed, what you were thinking of, when you stood be- 
fore the altar ? " " To confess the truth freely," replied 
Mueller, " I was thinking of my cattle." " Well, here you 
have the cause of the vision. I know of no other one," 
concluded the minister. * Prof. Perty gives the par- 

* Die Monistische Seelenlehre, by du Prel, page 178. 



42 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

ticulars of the double of a governess ; the young lady could 
not keep any position long, on account of being frequently 
seen in two places at the same time. 

Having now disposed of this branch of our subject, we 
will proceed to contemplate the real separations, however 
temporary, of the spirit from its tenement. 

The psychic discoveries of recent research which seem 
so novel and strange to the western world have long been 
familiar to eastern sages. The Orientals are said to be 
very conservative, not inclined to make new discoveries 
in physical science. But in mental science they have been 
our teachers. All great religions originated in the east : 
Buddhism, Christianity and Mohammedanism. Mr. A. P. 
Sinnett says : " The adept (eastern) has found the key of 
his prison and can emerge from it at pleasure. The body 
is the prison of the soul for ordinary mortals. It is no 
longer a prison for the sage — merely a dwelling. In other 
words, the adept can project his soul out of his body to 

any place he pleases with the rapidity of thought 

As an incidental discovery, it will be observed, he has thus 
ascertained beyond all shadow of, doubt that he really has 

got a soul he knows he has a soul. He knows 

it just as another man knows he has a great-coat. He 
can put it from him, and render it manifest as something 
separate from himself. But remember that to him, when 
the separation is effected, he is the soul, and the thing put 
off is the body." * The following case of separation is 
very curious, and ought perhaps to have been classified 
with the double. Here, however, the double is no phantom, 
but the real person. Professor Perty relates : " Miss 
Sophie Swoboda, twenty years of age in- 1853, had laid 

* The Occult World, by A. P. Sinnett, 2nd Amer. Edition, pages 
15, 17, 20. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



43 



herself upon the sofa in her mother's room one afternoon 
on account of severe headache. She finally fell asleep. 
It seemed to her now as if the mother withdrew softly 
from the room ; she awoke ; felt now quite easy and free 
from pain, rose up hastily in order to follow her mother 
into a third room, to tell her this favorable change. The 
mother was sitting over her knitting ; the father, opposite 
her, sat reading aloud to her Schelling's Mystische Ncechte. 
Sophie placed herself by the side of both parents, to await 
a pause in the reading for her communication. But neither 
of them noticed her; although they looked up several 
times in expressing to one another their opinion of the 
reading. Surprised at this, Sophie withdrew into the re- 
cess of one of the windows and listened to the reading. 
Soon, however, the mother arose, saying : " I am uneasy 
about Sophie's illness ; I must look after her." Now the 
latter quickly came forward to reassure her. But the 
mother did not look at her ; hurried out of the room into 
the first room. Now Sophie was about to surprise her 
mother with a kiss, as she followed behind ; but the mother 
in anxiety hastened to the sofa, whereon Sophie had lain. 
" How pale she is ! " said the mother to another daughter, 
Theresa, who was just entering through another door. 
Sophie, now looking in the same direction, saw to her great 
astonishment herself lying upon the sofa, ghastly pale and 
her eyes closed. Mother and sister were bending down 
anxiously, calling her by name. This induced Sophie to 
advance close to the spot too. At that moment she felt 
herself thrown upon the couch as with one blow. Wearily 
and painfully she opened her eyes, and assisted by her 
mother and sister she raised herself up. After she had 
somewhat recovered herself, she related to the parents her 
experience, and they marveled not a little when she re- 



44 THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 

peated the passages the father had read, and the opinions 
both had expressed, using partly the identical language, 
yet she had been three rooms distant and the door was 
shut." * 

Professor Max Perty has compiled an immense number 
of so-called mystic phenomena, that have occurred in all 
ages and in every country almost. He who thinks such 
occurrences are very rare is greatly mistaken; let him 
read the literature on the subject and he will know better. 
Even if very rare, they would still be indispensable to the 
psychological student. Diamonds are comparatively rare 
compared with common stones ; volcanoes are compara" 
tively rare compared with other mountains. Genius is 
rare in the intellectual world. Yet we make investiga- 
tions concerning these rare elements. Yea, just because 
genius is rare, we study or contemplate it with so much 
more diligence. And " if an author were to write a 
history of English literature, and leave out Shakespeare, 
maintaining as a reason that such a genius is too great an 
exception to be considered in literature, we would unan- 
imously declare such an author a fool. We would 
reply that, aside from the great influence upon literature 
of such an exceptional genius, the psychological study of 
such a mind throws a brighter light upon man's mental 
powers than a multitude of ordinary men of letters." f 

Nor can other cases of mere superstition or hallucina- 
tion invalidate authentic evidence. " One indubitable, 
positive instance cannot be invalidated by a hundred 
negative ones." t One genuine case is enough for estab- 

* Psychische Studien (1879), quoted by du Prel, Mon. Seelenl. 
page 194. 

t See Das Zweite Gesicht, by du Prel, page 5. 
I Der Spiritismus, by E. von Hartmann, page 14. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 45 

lishing the possibility of the occurrence of any kind of 
phenomena, no matter how numerous the counterfeits or 
deceptions. " Prisoner ! " said the judge to a culprit, 
" what have you to say against the testimony of these 
witnesses that have seen the act?" "Your honor," 
replied the accused, " I can bring you many more 
witnesses that have seen nothing." * 

It will be understood then, by the discerning reader, 
that the instances given in this book of so-called occult 
phenomena are selected from multitudes of instances ; 
one, two or three typical ones only are adduced. The 
following, however, is perhaps one of a class of occur- 
rences comparatively rarer than others in its particulars, 
which are exceedingly interesting and instructive. Perty 
relates : " In the month of April, 1866, a lady whom I 
know was reading Matzenauer's little book , ' The Human 
Mind Here and Hereafter,' which she enjoyed greatly : 
but a scholar who resided in the same town, caused her 
much chagrin by his avowed unbelief. Otherwise, she 
highly esteemed the man. So she thought : I would like 
to prove to the doctor, that the author is right in some 
things at least ! She firmly made up her mind to pay 
him a spiritual visit, as soon as she could, in order to 
convince him by his own experience of man's twofold 
nature of body and soul. One day she returned from an 
agricultural exposition fatigued, and with a headache ; 
she ate little and retired to seek recreation in sleep. At 
about three o'clock in the afternoon, when not yet fully 
asleep, she felt herself especially capable of leaving her 
body and of becoming 'self-active.' When she closed her 
eyes, she found herself immediately in the familiar room 
of the gentleman, who was sitting at his writing-desk and 

t du Prel relates this somewhere. 



46 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

was taking out a small object from a little box, which cir- 
cumstance the lady well remembers. He gave expres- 
sion to his thoughts in a monologue, and though he men- 
tioned no name, she in her lucid state knew immediately 
what he was talking about. Yielding to a mischievous 
impulse, she stepped forward to his right side and 
whispered in reply to what he had spoken, teasingly, a 
question into his ear, which he, however, regarded as his 
own stray thought crossing his mind, causing him to 
smile. Now, as the lady wanted to be recognized, and 
she could not make him hear her, she was about to make 
herself visible to him. Advancing a few steps she stood 
now opposite him, near the window, gazing at him in- 
tently with the firm determination that he should see her. 
He raised his eyes toward her and, to all appearances, 
she must now have been visible. But he regarded what 
he beheld as an hallucination, as much as to say : ' Is 
what I see objective, or subjective ; is it a delusion of the 
senses, and what has produced it ? ' Thus he looked at 
the lady longer than she wished ; for, being acquainted 
with him from youth, she desired to be recognized, and 
to be spoken to. But as nothing of the sort occurred, 
she gazed at him almost sternly, regretting his unbelief 
and his silence. Yet she did not succeed on that day to 
convince him of the power of the spirit over the body. 
He only looked at her more sharply, and she concluded 
to withdraw and end her visit ; but in order to avoid 
meeting other persons, not to go out through the door, 
but to vanish characteristically before his eyes. Gradually 
drawing back, yet still looking steadily at the doctor, she 
approached the corner in the wall near the window, when 
she suddenly remembered that naturally this wall would 
be a physical barrier ; at the same time, however, she re- 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 47 

membered her spiritual power of will. She must get 
through here. So she retired with head bent backwards, 
first passing through the furniture that was standing by 
the wall, next she passed through the wall itself ; it was a 
so-called main wall. From the gentleman's love of truth 
she drew the hope that he would some day acknowledge 
and confirm what to her was such a highly interesting 
case." * 

I conclude this chapter with a curious instance from the 
New Testament, where an excarnated spirit is called an 
angel. In the twelfth chapter of The Acts is recorded 
how King Herod imprisoned Peter the Apostle, and how 
the prisoner was released miraculously from confinement. 
The apostle, on seeking entrance to the house of his 
friends, who had no intimation of his deliverance, was by 
them regarded as the spirit of Peter, already slain by the 
cruel King : " He came to the house of Mary, the mother 
of John, whose surname was Mark ; where many were 
gathered together praying. And as Peter knocked at the 
door of the gate, a damsel came to hearken, named Rhoda. 
And when she knew Peter's voice, she opened not the 
gate for joy, but ran in, and told how Peter stood before 
the gate. And they said unto her, Thou art mad. But 
she confidently affirmed that it was so, and they said, It 
is his angel." t 

* Mystische Thatsachen, etc., page 32-34. t Acts xii., 12-15. 



48 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



CHAPTER IX. 

SECOND SIGHT. 

Ordinarily we cannot see things that are beyond the 
reach of our eyes, or hear sounds beyond the reach of our 
ears ; but certain human beings are gifted with a power 
to see and hear what is distant in time and space. An 
event of the future is beheld as a present occurrence and 
scenes that transpire ever so far in the distance, are seen 
by the seer. The word Seer reminds us forthwith of a 
scene in the Bible recorded in I. Samuel, Chap. IX. : Saul 
is seeking some animals that were missing. As he cannot 
find them, he says to the servants accompanying him in 
the search : " Behold now, there is in this city a man of 
God, and honorable ; all that he saith, cometh surely to 
pass : now let us go thither ; peradventure he can shew 
us our way that we should go. Beforetime in Israel, when 
a man went to inquire of God, he spake thus : ' Come, and 
let us go to the seer ■ ' for he that is now called Prophet 
was beforetime called a Seer." In II. Kings, Chap. VI., 
we read of an incident that introduces to us another famous 
Seer : " Then the King of Syria warred against Israel, 
and took counsel with his servants, saying, In such and 
such a place shall be my camp. And the man of God 
(Elisha) sent unto the King of Israel, saying, Beware that 
thou pass not such a place ; for thither the Syrians are 
come down. And the King of Israel sent to the place 
which the man of God told him and warned him of, and 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



49 



saved himself there, not once nor twice." (That is to say, 
this happened several times that the King of Israel was 
thus informed.) " Therefore the heart of the King of 
Syria was sore troubled for this thing ; and he called his 
servants, and said unto them, Will ye not shew me which 
of us is for the King of Israel ? " (There must be a traitor 
among us ; will no one point him out ?) " And one of his 
servants said, None, my lord, O King : but Elisha, the 
prophet that is in Israel, telleth the King of Israel the 
words that thou speakest in thy bed-chamber." 

I will at once advance to a modern example. This is 
the famous case of Cazotte's prophecy concerning the 
French Revolution. The prediction is recorded by La 
Harpe in his collected works, published in 1806. He 
describes himself as having been present, at the com- 
mencement of the year 1788, at a dinner party given by 
one of his confreres of the Academy, to a distinguished 
company, including people of the Court, of legal and liter- 
ary distinction, and many Academicians. The conversa- 
tion during the evening ran on the lines of Voltairean 
infidelity and atheism, then coming so widely into fashion. 
The party was convulsed with delight at one anecdote told 
by a guest, whose hair-dresser had said to him, " Look 
you, sir, though I am but a miserable carabin, I have no 
more religion than anybody else." The only person who 
had not taken part in all these pleasantries was Cazotte, 
an amiable and original man, says La Harpe, but unfort- 
unately infatuated with the reveries of the mystic. At 
last he spoke more seriously than the others. 

" Gentlemen," said he, " be satisfied ; you will see this 
grand and sublime revolution which you desire so much." 

" No need to be a great sorcerer to foresee that," replied 
some. 
4 



50 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

"True, but perhaps it is necessary to be something of 
one to see the rest I have to tell you — namely, what will 
happen during this revolution." 

Count D'Orsay said, with a sarcastic laugh, that a phi- 
losopher need not be annoyed at encountering a prophet. 

" You, Count D'Orsay," said Cazotte, " will expire on 
the pavement of a dungeon. You will die of poison 
which you will have taken to escape the executioner — 
poison which the happiness of that epoch will oblige you 
to carry always about you." 

Some sensation followed, and Cazotte was rebuked for 
giving them a story less amusing than his Diable 
Amoureux. 

" But what has all that in common with philosophy and 
the Reign of Reason ? " 

" It is precisely in the name of philosophy and liberty, 
and under the Reign of Reason and its temples, that these 
things will happen." 

" Ma foi ! " said Chamfort ; " you will not be one of 
the priests of those temples." 

" But you, M. de Chamfort, will be one, and you will 
open your veins with twenty-two cuts with a razor, and 
nevertheless you will not die until some months after- 
wards. You, M. Vicq d'Azir, will not open your veins ; 
you will have them opened six times in one day, during 
an access of gout, and you will die in the night. You, 
M. de Nicolai, you will die upon the scaffold. You, M. 
Bailly, will die on the scaffold ; you, M. de Malesherbes, 
on the scaffold." 

So far the ladies had taken no part in this prophecy, 
and the Duchess de Gramont was laughingly congratulat- 
ing herself that evidently she would be protected by her 
sex. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



5 1 



" Your sex, ladies, will not secure you this time. You 
will be treated like the men, without any difference. You, 
madame la duchesse, you will be conducted to the scaffold, 
you and many others with you in the charette of the exe- 
cutioner, the hands tied behind the back." 

The conversation still maintained an air of ridicule, and 
Madame de Gramont said something about hoping she 
would at least be allowed to see a confessor. 

"No, madame," said Cazotte, "you will not have one, 
neither you nor any one. The last victim who will have 

one through grace will be " He hesitated a little 

while. 

" Well, who is the happy mortal who is to receive this 
prerogative ? " 

" It will be the King of France." 

At this appalling blasphemy the party seems to have 
broken up, thinking Cazotte's extravagance had been 
carried to dangerous lengths. 

" M. Deleuze found out the son of M. Cazotte, who de- 
clared that his father had always been gifted with the 
faculty of prevision in the highest degree, and had numer- 
ous proofs of it. Without being able to guarantee the 
exact language used by La Harpe in his narrative, the 
son had no doubt whatever about its general truthfulness. 
A friend of M. Vicq d'Azir, inhabiting Rennes, bore 
testimony that this celebrated doctor had told the story 
of Cazotte's prophecy in his presence, several times 
before the revolution took place. Finally, M. Deleuze 
appends a letter by the Baron de Langon, in which he 
says : ' I can assure you on my honor that I have heard 
Madame la Comtesse de Beauharnais repeat that she had 
been present on this historic occasion." # 

* The Rationale of Mesmerism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 176. 



52 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Emanuel Swedenborg, the famous seer and philosopher, 
"saw" on the 19th of July, 1759, at Gottenburg, a con- 
flagration raging in Stockholm, three hundred miles 
distant, describing it minutely, with feelings of regret. 
He was agitated and watched, as it seemed, the course 
of the fire with much solicitude. He first reported the 
scene a little after six o'clock. At eight he said joyfully : 
"Thank God, the fire is extinguished, the third door from 
my house." * 

But it must not be supposed that only philosophers are 
gifted with this faculty. On the contrary, it is found in 
quite ignorant persons of either sex or age ; in children, 
youths, men, women, old men, in fakirs and wandering 
gypsies. As if particular climates were especially favor- 
able for the exercise of this gift, the inhabitants of the 
Scotch isles display the faculty of second sight pre- 
eminently. In Scotch history it is often spoken of. The 
historian Molwin, and Lord Clarendon in his " History 
of the Rebellion," relate of a Scotch nobleman that he 
foresaw the assassination of the Duke of Buckingham by 
Captain Felton. Shakespeare has immortalized the vision 
related by Hector Boethius in his Scotorum Historia 
(Paris, 1535). "Not long after, there occurred a novel and 
marvelous event, which disturbed the peace of the realm. 
For, when Maccabaus (Macbeth) and Banquho were on 
their journey to Forres, where the King sojourned at that 
time, and 'were roving for pleasure through field and wood, 
there appeared to them suddenly three women in unusual 
manner and dress, approaching them. When they looked 
at them surprised and more attentively, the first said : 
' Hail, Maccabaus, Than of Glammis ! ' The second 
said : ' Hail, Than of Caldar ! ' but the third said : ' Hail, 
* Life of Swedenborg, by William White, page 136. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 53 

Maccabaus, the future king of Scotland ! ' Thereupon 
Banquho : ' Ye, whoever ye may be, seem little in my 
favor, since ye bring to him, besides the highest honours, 
even the crown of the realm, but nothing at all to me.' 
Then answered the first one : ' Much greater things we 
announce to thee, than we foretold him ; for, though he 
will reign as king, disaster will be his end, and none of 
his descendants will justly claim the throne ; thou, however, 
though thyself wilt never rule, shalt be the ancestor of a 
long dynasty of grandsons who will reign over Scot- 
land.' " * 

" The traveler Martin, author of ' Description of the 
Western Islands of Scotland ' (17 16) gives ample informa- 
tion concerning second sight ; Dr. Johnson in ' A 
Journey to the Western Islands of Scotland,' and James 
Boswell in ' The Journal of a Tour to the Hebrides,' 
speak of it." f 

" Martin, the above-mentioned traveler, was seen by 
inhabitants of the Islands when yet a hundred miles 
distant, though he came there accidentally, and they did 
not at all know him. He relates that the seer, Archibald 
Macdonald, one evening told his family of a curious 
vision. He had seen a man with a long, ugly hood, who 
was constantly shaking his head, and was holding in his 
hand a small harp of four strings, ornamented with 
antlers. Four days later there came indeed an old man 
who was thus disguised ; he played the fool to earn money, 
had never been seen in that region before, and was twenty 
miles away when the vision occurred." % 

Perty reports a great many examples of second sight, 

* Das Zweite Gesicht, by du Prel, page 12. 
t Ibid., page 8. 
| Ibid., page 9. 



54 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Perhaps the power of prevision ; of foreseeing what is not 
yet even indicated in the present ; of gazing at scenes 
that will transpire in future, is even more marvelous, than 
seeing what is distant in space. It is prophecy. 

A very large volume could be filled with authentic 
narratives of this kind. Edward von Hartmann, the 
famous philosopher, admits that a case like the following 
establishes, once for all, the existence of the gift of 
second sight. A lady, looking out of the window, sees a 
funeral procession passing through her garden, recogniz- 
ing the familiar faces of the mourners. She was surprised 
to see her garden invaded by such a scene, for never 
before did a funeral take this direction to the cemetery. 
A few days after, an inundation made the regular way to 
the cemetery impassable, and the identical funeral with the 
identical mourners actually passed through her garden.* 

Second sight partakes both of the faculty of prophecy 
and clairvoyance ; for Seership is a species of which 
clairvoyance is the genus ; " a condition in which the 
spirit can enter the past and future, as well as the pres- 
ent." 

* Der Spiritismus, von E. von Hartmann, page 77. 



THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 



55 



CHAPTER X. 

CLAIRVOYANCE. 

We have now fairly entered the realm of so-called 
occult phenomena, of what is often misnamed super- 
natural, the realm of — miracles. Augustine already per- 
ceived that a wonder does not occur in contradiction to 
nature, but in contradiction to what we know about 
nature. I purposely omit the enumeration of ancient 
occurrences, in order to lay stress upon modern ones. If 
we cannot cross-examine ancient witnesses, or sift the 
testimony of Pythagoras and Plotinus, Socrates and Ap- 
polonius, we can, if we earnestly desire, and take the 
right steps, obtain absolute proofs of these phenomena 
in our own time. If there are transcendental powers 
in man now, in this busy, modern, material life, why 
should they not have been manifested by men in the 
past, especially in the more contemplative East? What 
was possible then, must be possible now. What happens 
to-day was possible in past ages. The ancients were 
more familiar with subjective forces ; we are more fa- 
miliar with objective forces. Occult phenomena occurred 
at all times ; but hitherto in the western world science 
had not investigated them. Just as the force of electric- 
ity existed anciently as well as to-day, but was un- 
known by men, because they had not the right method 
of research. We recently adopted a new method, whereby 
a large class of seemingly aberrant phenomena is scien- 



56 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

tifically classified and explained naturally. What was so 
aptly said by G. H. Lewes in regard to the inductive 
method of modern physical science, may be applied to 
the recent mode of psychic investigation. Recent, that 
is to say, scarcely half a century old. ' Mr. Lewes, speak- 
ing of the mistake of the ancients of studying external 
nature by the same method employed in the study of the 
mental sciences, says : " But in the course of human evolu- 
tion a second method grew up, at first timidly and uncon- 
sciously, gradually enlarging its bounds as it enlarged its 
powers, and at last separating itself into open antagonism 
with its parent and rival. The child then destroyed its 
parent ; as the mythic Zeus, calling the Titans to his aid, 
destroyed Saturn and usurped his throne. Observation 
and Experiment were the Titans of the new Method." * 

But in the new method of spiritual research, the 
monarch destroyed is Materialism, not Philosophy nor 
Metaphysics, as Mr. Lewes erroneously indicates in 
reference to modern science. 

The subject of clairvoyance is of such scope and magni- 
tude that I fear I cannot do justice to it, even approx- 
imately, in this cursory sketch. The literature of this 
theme is becoming so extensive, that many volumes would 
be required to treat it exhaustively. The time is past 
when a W. B. Carpenter could dare to deny clairvoyance, 
or declare it a delusion or a trick. " It is not unbelief 
to deny the reality of clairvoyance," says the philosopher 
Schopenhauer, " but ignorance." It is with this as it is 
with mesmerism, now universally recognized as a stupend- 
ous power, a force that is a great factor in the natural ex- 
planation of what our forefathers called witchcraft. We 

* History of Philosoph, I., page xiii, introduction. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 57 

have already come upon the faculty of clairvoyance in 
treating of second sight ; just as we had to refer to the 
faculty of prevision or prophecy. They are allied phe- 
nomena. Clairvoyance is seeing, not with the natural, 
but with the spiritual eye. Clairaudience is hearing with 
the spiritual ear. In the preceding chapter, mention was 
made of the prophet Elisha, who heard, if we may call it 
hearing, what the King of Syria said to his attendants 
confidential^ far away in another country. As the 
science of these phenomena is yet in its infancy, the 
author of this book may perhaps be excused for mixing 
up clear-seeing with clear-hearing. Clairaudience is the 
name given to the latter ; but if I am not mistaken, the 
term clairvoyance is generic, and embraces all modes of 
cognition transcending our ordinary five senses. A mere 
presentiment or foreboding may be regarded as incipient 
clairvoyance. From a vague presentiment to a clear 
sight or hearing is a gradual step.* The following is from 
my own experience, and is one of a million of like occur- 
rences. My father, physically a powerful man, who 
never was sick, went to America from Germany in 1841. 
My mother, myself and a brother remained in the old 
country. When my father was gone about three months, 
I awoke in the middle of the night weeping and sobbing 
bitterly. " O, mother," cried the four- year-old boy, 
" father is dead, I saw him being carried out of the room 
by some men." My father, who had been especially 
attached to me, had actually died in New Orleans from 
yellow fever, then raging epidemically there. Now, the 
mystery of such clairvoyance disappears, when we find 
out that there are thought-waves as well as sound-waves 

* See The Debatable Land, by R. D. Owen, and The Night-Side of 
Nature, by Mrs. Crowe. 



58 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

and waves of light. Telepathy is just as natural as 
telegraphy. 

" It may seem rather late in the day to refer to the pro- 
ceedings of the British Association, but it will be a long 
time before it can be too late to ponder the remarkable 
address given by Professor Lodge as President of its 
Mathematical and Physical Section. That address turned 
upon something which he called a fact, connected with 
a subject to which he referred as one ' lying by the road- 
side,' 'beyond the pale of scientific orthodoxy' — 'a 
rather ill-favored and disreputable looking stranger,' but 
' not all scamp,' he says, whose present condition, indeed, 
is ' as much due to our long-continued neglect ' as any- 
thing else. 

" What, then, is the fact — the strange, uncanny fact — 
which this scientific master in Israel thinks should be 
pressed upon the attention of these wonderfully clever 
people ? We state it in his own words : 

" ' There is the question whether it has or has not been 
established by direct experiment that a method of com- 
munication exists between mind and mind irrespective of 
the ordinary channels of consciousness and the known 
organs of sense, and if so, what is the process.' ' Is it 
possible that an idea can be transferred from one person 
to another by a process such as we have not yet grown 
accustomed to, and know practically nothing about ? In 
this case I have evidence. I assert that I have seen it 
done, and am perfectly convinced of the fact.' 

It ought to interest every one to note what has been 
happening with regard to this fact. ' The orthodoxy of 
science ' has scoffed at it. Nay, in the past, keen-sighted 
and accomplished men have been ruined and hounded 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



59 



into their graves because of it. And now, here stands 
this chosen man of Science doing vicarious penance, the 
just for the unjust, to bring these scientific sinners to re- 
pentance. Such a lesson ! and, even now, this brave and 
honest man has to say that the territory occupied by this 
wonderful fact ' seems to be inhabited mainly by savages, 
many of them, so far as zue can judge from a distance, 
given to gross superstition.' Yes; judged 'from a dis- 
tance.' But why ' at a distance ' ? Whose fault is it 
that God's pioneers look like ' savages ' ? It is good to 
see this prominent man of science rebuke the stupid 
scientific orthodoxy of the majority who, in this matter, 
are so much to blame. There are the facts, he says, but 
1 the Orthodox man shuts his ears.' He says : 

" ' I doubt if one of the recognized scientific societies 
would receive a paper on the subject. What I wish is to 
signalize a danger — which I believe to be actual and 
serious — that investigation in this and cognate subjects 
may be checked and hampered by active hostility to these 
researches on the part of the majority of scientific men, 
and a determined opposition to the reception of discussion 
of evidence.' ' For a corporate body of men of science, 
inheritors of the hard-won tradition of free and fearless 
inquiry into the facts of nature untrammeled by prejudice, 
for any such body to decline to receive evidence labori- 
ously attained and discreetly and inoffensively presented 
by observers of accepted competency in other branches, 
would be, if ever actually done and persisted in, a terrible 
throwing away of their prerogative, and an imitation of 
the errors of a school of thought against which the struggle 
was at one time severe.' 

" It is immensely instructive. Even the foremost men 
(whose business it is to find the facts and deal with them) 



60 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

shirk these unfamiliar but enormously important matters— = 
for fear of losing caste, or dreading the loss of influence-, 
or fearing persecution from the profession and from 
1 society.' Oh ! that evil spirit of persecution — that 
odious readiness to punish a man for being too much of a 
truthseeker ! How hateful it is everywhere ! 

" The man of science, says Professor Lodge, ought to be 
open and receptive ; the last man to use the ignorant 
word ' impossible.' 

" s Our ancestors fought hard and suffered much for the 
privilege of free and open inquiry, for the right of conduct- 
ing investigation untrammeled by prejudice and foregone 
conclusions, • and they were ready to examine into any 
phenomenon which presented itself. ... It would be a 
great pity if a too absorbed attention to what has already 
been acquired, and to the fringe of territory lying im- 
mediately adjacent thereto, were to end in our losing the 
power of raising our eyes and receiving evidence of a 
totally fresh kind, of perceiving the existence of regions 
into which the same processes of inquiry as had proved 
so fruitful might be extended, with results at present in- 
calculable and perhaps wholly unexpected. I, myself, 
think that the ordinary processes of observation and ex- 
periment are establishing the existence of such a region ; 
that in fact they have already established the truth of 
some phenomena not at present contemplated by science, 
and to which the orthodox man shuts his ears." 

" ' It is no use theorizing, it is unwise to decline to 
examine phenomena because we feel too sure of their 
impossibility. We ought to know the universe very 
thoroughly and completely before we take up that atti- 
tude." 

" ' What we know is as nothing to that which remains to 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 61 

be known. This is sometimes said as a truism ; some- 
times it is half-doubted. To me it seems the most literal 
truth, and that if we narrow our view to already half-con- 
quered territory only, we shall be false to the men who 
won our freedom, and treasonable to the highest claims 
of science.' ' I care not what the end may be. I do 
care that the inquiry shall be conducted by us, and that 
we shall be free from the disgrace of jogging along 
acustomed roads, leaving to isolated laborers the work, 
the ridicule, and the gratification, of unfolding a new 
region to unwilling eyes.' 

It is too early yet to attempt any explanation of the 
marvelous fact — that mind and mind can communicate 
without physical contact, sight or speech — but our pro- 
fessor goes further in referring to one explanation, which, 
however, is not new. He reminds us that there is ' a gap 
in our knowledge between the conscious idea of a motion 
and the liberation of muscular energy needed to accom- 
plish it : ' and then suggests that the act of will might of 
itself, and without contact, move an external object. How 
can a volition move a muscle ? We are so used to it that 
we need to make an effort to see the gap : but the gap is 
broad, and it seems impossible to bridge it. If, then, the 
mind or an act of will can move a muscle, why might it 
not move, say, a book five feet off ? The only difference 
may be that we have learnt to do the one but have still to 
learn how to do the other. But, as to the influencing of 
one brain by another, our professor, in reminding us how 
familiar we all are with communication between mind and 
mind by means of waves of motion in the air, which pro- 
duce sound, says that we can imagine other waves, in a 
more subtle atmosphere, which might produce and repro- 
duce thoughts. It is, indeed, perfectly conceivable. We 



62 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

have only to think of an extremely subtile telephone, act- 
ing in an atmosphere, ether, or electricity of its own. To 
the majority that will appear monstrous : but, as Professor 
Lodge says : 

" ' At first, things always look mysterious. A comet, 
lightning, the aurora, the rainbow — all strange anomalous 
mysterious apparitions. But scrutinized in the dry light 
of science, their relationship with other better known 
things becomes apparent. They cease to be anomalous ; 
and, though a certain mystery necessarily remains, it is no 
more a property peculiar to them.' 

" So we everywhere see advance, from the mysterious 
to the commonplace — from the so-called " impossible " to 
the actually familiar. Once tabooed subjects are now 
' taken under the wing of science after long ridicule and 
contempt ' : ' facts so strange that they have often been 
called miraculous are now no longer regarded as entirely 
incredible ' : ' the possibilities of the universe are infinite.' 
So, at last, says the official mouthpiece of mathematics 
and physical science — thanks to the superb pioneers to 
whom our professor playfully alludes as the uncanny 
' savages ' and ' scamps ' — angel revealers in disguise. 

" One inference we cannot pass over : 

" ' It is sometimes objected,' says Professor Lodge, 
1 that, granting thought-transference or telepathy to be a 
fact, it belongs more especially to lower forms of life, and 
that as the cerebral hemispheres develop we become in- 
dependent of it; that what we notice is the relic of a 
decaying faculty, not the germ of a new and fruitful 
sense ; and that progress is not to be made by studying or 
attending to it. It maybe that it is an immature mode of 
communication, adapted to lower stages of consciousness 
than ours, but how much can we not learn by studying 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 63 

immature stages ! As well might the objection be urged 
against a study of embryology. It may, on the other 
hand, as W. F. Barret has suggested, be an indication of a 
higher mode of communication, which shall survive our 
temporary connection with ordinary matter.' 

" What more likely ? But what follows ? This follows : 
that we have here the very clew we want to the unseen 
man. This subtile, penetrating, forceful, independent 
inner self which moves the body, and orders about other 
bodies, and acts apart from the body — why should it not 
survive the always perishing and changing body? It 
seems so reasonable : and it will certainly be a delightful 
and almost amusing denouement if the demonstration of 
the immortality of the soul proceeds, not from the church, 
but from the laboratory, or from a section of the British 
Association : if not the priest, but the dreaded ' material- 
ist,' introduces us to spirits, after all." # 

Clairvoyance may exist spontaneously or may be in- 
duced by mesmeric passes. The reader is referred to 
the works of the great modern Seer, A. J. Davis, es- 
pecially to his elucidation of induced clairvoyance 
in his Nature's Divine Revelation, pages $2> to 54> 
where the modus operandi is given. His Autobiography 
contains a minute description of his experience, when 
under the influence of an operator, and a diagram illus- 
trating the process, page 204, et seq. 

Clairvoyance may be used to detect crimes and criminals, 
and has been so employed. Carl du Prel reports thirty- 
four cases of such detections, authenticated in judicial 
proceedings.! 

* From The Coming Day, London, England, quoted by The 
Banner of Light of Dec. 19, 1891. 

t Hypnotische Verbrechen, by Dr. Carl du Prel. 



64 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

There is a species of clairvoyance called Psychometry 
" A psychometrist is one who, by taking in his hand an 
object, will, in a few moments, be able to discover whence 
it came, what have been its surroundings during the past, 
the conditions under which it has existed, and also what 
are its component parts. A psychometrist will be able 
to minutely describe the appearance of an individual 
whose handwriting is placed before him ; to delineate his 
characteristics, and to tell about the business life of that 
person. Thus a psychometrist may come en rapport with 
another individual merely by holding in his hand a piece 
of paper on which that other has written a few words, 
some article which he has handled, or a garment which 
he has worn." * For an exhaustive treatment of this 
subject, see Dr. J. R. Buchanan's Manual of Psychometry ^ 
Boston, 1889. 

In passing, I may here call attention to the fact, that 
we are now in a position in which we can, with one single 
modification, accept as authentic, phenomena of clair- 
voyance or clairaudience recorded in the Bible. In I. 
Samuel, Chap. III., we read that the boy Samuel heard 
his name called in the night while asleep. There was only 
one person reposing in the same apartment. " And he 
ran unto Eli and said, Here am I ; for thou calledst me. 
And he said, I called not ; lie down again. And he went 
and lay down." Again he hears his name called, presents 
himself to the high priest and is again told that he was not 
wanted. The sacred writer then remarks that Samuel 
did not yet know of such manifestations. When the 
young seer hears the voice for the third time, and rises 
again and comes to Eli, then " Eli perceived that the Lord 

* The Banner of Light, of Feb. 25, 1893, P a g e 6, See the Soul of 
Things, by William Denton, 3 volumes. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 65 

had called the child." The only reservation the new 
psychology has in regard to such cases is, that it under- 
stands by the Lord, not God Almighty, but a lesser human 
Intelligence. But this anticipates what will be more 
fully stated in the sequel, 



66 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



CHAPTER XL 



PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTROL. 



The influence of one mind over another is a matter of 
daily experience. This influence is both conscious and 
unconscious, voluntary and involuntary. In teaching, 
training and moral persuasion in leading others, as in 
military expeditions, in political factions, and party 
tactics, the influence is consciously exerted. There is 
also an unconscious influence going out from us unto 
others, potent for good or evil. Just as some flowers 
exhale fragrance, and others diffuse a bad odor. Physi- 
cians are especially aware of the influence they exert 
over their patients in the ratio of the confidence they 
inspire. The degree in which the influence of one mind 
over another is exerted for good or ill, is according to the 
nature of the agent and of the recipient. The more 
positive the agent, the more potent the influence ; the 
more passive or impressive the recipient, other things 
being equal, the greater the control. Who remembers 
not, in this connection, the power of a Napoleon I., and 
the commanding influence of other military geniuses ! Or 
the fascinating spell of a great orator upon an audience ! 
Men call it magnetism, and the expression is a happy 
one, though hitherto perhaps nothing more was meant by 
the word than a certain invisible, psychic influence, an in- 
fluence that could not be more definitely defined ; an 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 67 

abstract something, or no-thing ; being conceived as pure 
mind. The new psychology has penetrated a little deeper 
into the arcana of nature and especially of human nature, 
and has discovered, as already indicated in preceding 
chapters, imponderable forces, more subtile than those 
known to the physiology of the day. Beyond the organic 
functions, beyond the blood, beyond the vital aura, beyond- 
the nerves forming a galvanic battery, as it were, there are 
electric and magnetic forces ; beyond the electric and 
magnetic forces is the nerve aura, which is acted upon 
by a definite psychic force, and beyond this psychic force 
there is the source of all life, Spirit, itself, as stated in 
chapter iii an emanation of the Soul, the real entity.* 
A. J. Davis, in his Stellar Key, page 56, presents this scale 
as to the cosmos : 

God (Pure Spirit), 
Ideas (Reason), 
Principles (Power), 
Laws (Force), 
Essences (Magnetism), 
Ethers (Electricity), 
Vapors (Atmosphere), 
Fluids (Water), 
Solids (Earth). 

" There is a Psychic Ether, related to thought, as the 
luminiferous ether is to light. This may be regarded as 
the thought atmosphere of the universe. A thinking 
being in this atmosphere is a pulsating center of thought- 
waves, as a luminous body is of light. There is a state 
of mind and body known as sensitive, or impressible, in 

* See Plate 4 A, in Psychopathy, by Dr. Rush. 



68 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

which it receives impressions from other minds. This 
state may be normal, or induced by fatigue, disease, 
drugs, "or arise in sleep. The facts of clairvoyance, trance, 
somnambulism and psychometry prove the existence of 
this ether, and are correlated to it." * I once more call at- 
tention to the descriptions of A. J. Davis in the works 
referred to in the preceding chapter. " Mesmerism is the 
combined influence of mind with the magnetic forces of 
the system, and has been usually employed to induce a 
state of clairvoyance, wherein a diagnosis of disease or 
description of distant places is received, and sometimes 

specific remedies prescribed The state of 

coma, or external unconsciousness, or semi-conscious- 
ness is the result of a reversal of the 

magnetic current, either to or from the brain 

The consciousness of the mesmerizer is placed immedi- 
ately en rapport with the brain of the subject ; he takes the 
magnetic and psychic currents under his own control, and 
connects them with his own consciousness or individuality 
instead of the individuality of the subject — as you would 
sever the connection of a telegraph wire in a certain 
direction and establish the current in another direction — 
the mesmerizer keeping the current of vitality, so that the 
system does not suffer a depletion of vitality. Any 
mind acting upon the nervous system of another through 
the brain, and having communication or sympathy with it, 
can keep up the current of vitality, not for a protracted 
period of time, but for a sufficient period to experiment in 
mesmeric science." f 

The recently published Rationale of Mesmerism, by A. 
P. Sinnett, is an admirable, though concise treatise on 
this subject, presenting a historical view from Mesmer's 

* Studies in Psychic Science, by Hudson Tuttle, page 5. 
t Psychopathy, by Dr. Rush, pages 74 and 76. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 69 

re-discovery of this occult force in 1766, till the present 
day. Mesmerism has of late years been called Hypnotism. 
It is merely another name for the same thing. Sinnett, 
himself a mesmerizer, and a great student of occult 
forces, is an authority on the subject, while orthodox 
science is puzzled and has vague and crude theories about 
it. The reader can learn little from such sources as the 
Encyclopedia Britannica, or the work of Heidenhain, 
entiled A?iimal Magnetism. Lacking the facts or data 
furnished by the researches of psychological experts of 
the new school, they strain their minds for plausible 
theories, and their speculations are more misleading than 
profitable. 

We have seen in Chapter II., that the human body or 
organism is an instrument formed and controlled by the 
spirit, just as a musical instrument is played upon by a 
musician. In this chapter we have learned that another 
spirit may use the instrument, during which the mental 
powers of the subject are in abeyance. There are spirits in 
the flesh and spirits out of the flesh. We now come to a 
very important revelation of the new psychology, which 
will solve for us a problem of the Bible that has, until 
recently, seemed insoluble in the light of the old mental 
philosophy. 



70 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 



CHAPTER XII. 

INSPIRATION. 

The reader has learned in Chapter I. that a human 
being, on withdrawing from the outward fleshly body, is 
immediately invested with a spiritual body ; that, intel- 
lectually and morally, the liberated spirit remains the 
same being essentially, though a certain exaltation of the 
faculties takes place. If one has an exquisite painting in 
a cellar, where the atmosphere is dense and gloomy, the 
picture does not appear advantageously ; but if taken into 
the light and removed into a suitable locality, its beauties 
will be much better perceived. No more tethered to a 
material body and to a certain locality, the freed spirit 
can go where it pleases, and can act more freely in its own 
sphere, and in those lower spheres, whose dwellers are 
ministered to by the higher. A sphere is a condition, not a 
circle. To illustrate : Vicious characters on earth maybe 
said to live in a different sphere from virtuous characters ; 
both may meet bodily, but there is a moral barrier between 
them. Another illustration : Poets live in a sphere of 
their own, and that noted prosaic mathematician, who 
after reading Milton's Paradise Lost exclaimed in- 
quiringly : " What does it prove ? " certainly did not live 
in the poet's sphere. There are as many heavens as there 
are spheres or conditions. 

The fact that character is not suddenly transformed by 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 71 

the change called death, is in accordance with analogy : 
Nature makes no sudden leap or jump in organic evolu- 
tion, much less in mental and moral growth. This fact, 
then, is in conformity with natural law, especially with the 
great law of development, of progressive evolution. A 
sudden transformation of the mental and moral nature 
would be a miracle, a miracle in the impossible sense of 
the term. 

The other fact upon which I desire to lay stress here, 
is, that throughout the illimitable spiritual universe, the 
higher beings minister to the lower, as is very partially 
done in this lower sphere of earth-life, though it is enjoined 
in Scripture that " The strong ought to bear the infirmities 
of the weak." It is the Divine Law in all spiritual realms, 
and that is the meaning of the prayer : " Thy will be done 
on earth, as it is in Heaven." Even in this life phil- 
anthropists exert themselves to elevate the lowly, the 
undeveloped ; and great minds devote themselves to 
the noble task of ameliorating the condition of the toil- 
ing masses of the poor and oppressed. The ideal is 
realized in family life, wherein the strong do " bear the 
infirmities of the weak." It is therefore natural that the 
higher spirits should minister to the lower. Now, excar- 
nated spirits do, under certain favorable conditions, com- 
municate thoughts and sentiments to spirits yet in the 
flesh. As a matter of fact, this is taking place to-day, 
and it has taken place in all ages ; pre-eminently at the 
commencement of a new era or dispensation in the 
spiritual evolution of mankind. As, for instance, at the 
advent of the introduction of the ethical element, through 
the Hebrews, into the ceremonial religion of antiquity, of 
which the Old Testament is a memorial ; and at the advent 
of Christianity, of which the New Testament is a record. 



72 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Before speaking of the modus operandi of inspiration let 
me state, once for all, the attitude of the spiritual philos- 
ophy in this great question, which hitherto was considered 
as belonging exclusively to the domain of theology. Theo- 
logians have various theories concerning inspiration. The 
spiritual philosophy does not advance theories, but facts , it 
knows, it does not surmise. Even orthodox theologians teach 
that revelation, the product of inspiration is progressive, 
relative, adapted to the degree of development and power 
of comprehension of men in a given age. Thus, the pro- 
phetical writings are correctly regarded as higher in ethical 
and spiritual value than the books of Genesis, Exodus, 
Leviticus and Numbers ; while these portions of the Mosaic 
law are in turn an advance, a progressive step from gross 
idolatry. When we come to the New Testament, to the sub- 
lime teachings of Jesus, we stand on still higher ground of 
moral and spiritual culture. Yet, while admitting, and even 
teaching that revelation is progressive and relative, not 
absolute and final, theologians, with glaring inconsistency, 
declare that the New Testament is an absolute and final 
revelation. This is the doctrine of plenary inspiration, or 
infallibility, which the Catholic reposes in the Pope, and 
the Protestant confers upon the Bible. It is a monstrous 
error, and was the root of all religious persecution and 
intolerance of the past. The spiritual science declares 
that the divine method of human education is a uniform 
method, and that this method is a gradual progression in 
all departments of human attainments whatsoever. As no 
man, however high in mental and moral culture, may say: 
" Now I know all ; now I am morally perfect." So no 
class or race of men can declare rationally to be in posses- 
sion of perfect truth, of final truth, of a complete system of 
revelation. The excarnated spirit is still a human being 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 73 

indeed, and no more infallible than it was when incarnated 
in the fleshly tabernacle. What it teaches mortals through 
a medium, must be subjected to the same tests, as we 
apply to teachers yet in the flesh. There can be no 
ready-made truth inserted from an outside source into the 
human brain, to be accepted without examination as 
absolute truth. Truths are not " obtained," they must be 
" acquired." Whatever is given by inspiration must be 
mentally digested and assimilated. In this process of 
mental digestion the nutritive portions are admitted into 
the system, and the innutritious and deleterious portions 
are ejected. No more can spiritual science adopt a fixed 
creed than physical science. The moment either of the 
two sciences does adopt a fixed creed, it commits suicide. 
As the rays of the sun only then give light and heat when 
they reach the atmosphere of the earth, so must spiritual 
rays from above be refracted in the human mind. When 
the time comes for the child in school to take up a certain 
branch of study, the proper time and not before, then the 
experienced teacher introduces the new branch of study, 
and moreover, adapts his mode of instruction, the very 
terms he uses, to the comprehension of the child. The 
youth is ripe for still harder studies ; and when approach- 
ing manhood, he will have given up the belief in the 
" man in the moon," and in other childish notions. Even 
so do wise spirits in higher realms await the proper time 
for the revelation of higher truths. Such a time is now 
on hand. " W T hen I was a child, I spake as a child, I felt 
as a child, I thought as a child : now that I am become 
a man, I have put away childish things." # 

How a human brain can be made the instrument for 
another intelligence, was already briefly explained in the 

* 1 Cor. xiii, 11. 



74 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

preceding chapter. I shall now quote the statement of 
one who is constantly engaged in the beneficent work of 
instructing mortals through a sensitive or medium. Next, 
I shall find in the Bible examples constituting perfect par- 
allels, thereby proving incontestably that inspiration did 
not cease with the New Testament, and that modern inspi- 
ration is, as to its modus operandi, exactly like the Biblical. 

Mesmerism is the expression of the power of mind 
over mind, as exercised by Mesmer, the scientist, as we 
are pleased to call him, or the physician scientist, who 
discovered that the mind of a sensitive patient can be 
brought under the subjection of a more positive mind, 
and made to reflect the thought and desire of the operator 
in the expression and movement of the patient. Mes- 
merism has become known more thoroughly in these latter 
years than formerly. At first it was scoffed at, and de- 
nied by the leading physicians and scientists of the day, 
and, of course, by the people in general, who were unfa- 
miliar with the occult laws of human life ; but in the 
present age its power is recognized more or less by 
scientists and the mass of mankind. 

Hypnotism seems to be only a new name given to mes- 
merism, meaning the exercise of the same power, that of 
the positive will-forces of a human being directed toward 
the mind of another human being. It is what we spirits 
and Spiritualists call psychology. And why called psy- 
chology ? Because it is of the soul. It belongs to the 
realm of psychics more thoroughly, perhaps, than to the 
realm of physics, for, although physicians may claim that 
hypnotism is merely the exercise of the potential physical 
force directed by intelligent mind toward a sensitive sub- 
ject, or a diseased patient, yet we of the higher life know 
that this magnetic power of the physical body is managed 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 75 

and directed by an intelligent spirit, whether that spirit 
is inhabiting a mortal form as a mesmeric operator, or 
whether it is a spirit excarnated who stands behind the 
mortal operator, and exercises his power of magnetic force 
and will upon his subject. 

Hypnotism and mesmerism then, we claim to be one 
and the same force exercised upon human beings by pos- 
itive minds, subjecting them to their will and desire, and 
making them conscious or unconscious, as the case may 
be. Some who are mesmerized (or hypnotized) are con- 
scious of what they are made to do, but are unable to 
resist the power. Others are totally unconscious, and do 
not know what words they express, or what they do while 
under the influence of this occult force. The spirit-con- 
trol of a medium is the exercise of this same psychologi- 
cal power, only the operator is in the unseen world, but 
is an intelligent mind, just the same as is the mesmeric 
operator, and this unseen intelligence directs his thought 
and magnetic force toward his medium, making the medium 
sensitive to his power and subjecting his or her brain to 
his will, so that it becomes a positive instrument in his 
hands, and is thus caused to reflect into external life the 
thoughts which he impresses upon it. Spirit-control, 
then, is the action of intelligent mind separated from a 
physical body upon another intelligent mind in the mortal 
flesh. Hypnotism or mesmerism is the exercise of intel- 
ligent mind that uses for its vehicle a physical form, and 
directs its power upon another intelligent mind encased 
in the material frame." * 

Before citing examples from the Bible, it is well to 
point out that, as intimated in the above quotation, 
the recipient of spiritual communication is often in a 

* Banner of Light, March 4, 1893, P a g e 6. 



76 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

trance, is entirely passive, uttering words of another. 
This may correspond to what theologians call verbal 
inspiration. Sometimes, however, only the ideas and 
thoughts are instilled into the mind of the medium, and 
the recipient, being in an exalted condition of heightened 
consciousness, all the mental and moral faculties glowing, 
as it were, under the influx of inspiration, supplies the 
language, clothing the given ideas with words. 

Prophets and seers of old were thus inspired, their 
minds were "reflecting- surfaces for the truths of heaven." 
Henry Ward Beecher, in a sermon on Inspiration, says 
(I quote from memory) that inspiration is not confined 
to the ancient prophets, seers and heroes ; it is universal 
like sunshine, and that in a given case, it is not always 
possible, nor is it necessary, to separate the ideas im- 
parted, from the medium's own ideas. Beecher illustrates 
this aptly by a steamship in motion, the motion being the 
resultant of several motive powers, as of steam and wind, 
etc., whereby it would be impossible to measure the re- 
spective quota of each toward the combined result. 

In Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. III., page 
2599, the prophetic trance is described as follows : " 1st. 
The bodily senses were closed to external objects, as in 
deep sleep. 2d. The reflective and discursive faculty 
was still and inactive. 3d. The spiritual faculty (Pneutnd) 
was awakened to the highest state of energy." On the 
same page in column b it is stated that the prophets had 
not, and could not have, a full knowledge of the import 
of their utterances. " They were the ' spokesmen ' 
merely." 

In the book of Numbers, chapters xxii.-xxiv. we are 
introduced to a trance speaker who declares over and 
over again that his speeches are not his own ; that he is 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. jj 

not accountable for what he says ; that he is constrained 
to give verbal expression to the thoughts of another intel- 
ligence, whose mouth-piece he is. " Lo, I am come unto 
thee," he says to the King of Moab, "have I now any' 
power at all to speak anything? the word that God 
putteth in my mouth, that shall I speak." # In the tenth 
chapter of Daniel, the prophet relates how he prepared 
himself by abstinence for a spiritual revelation. " Three 
whole weeks I ate no pleasant bread, neither came flesh 
nor wine in my mouth, neither did I anoint myself at all. 
And in the four-and-twentieth day, etc., I lifted up mine 
eyes, and looked, and behold a man clothed in linen, etc. 
And I, Daniel, alone, saw the vision : for the men that 
were with me saw not the vision." Then the trance-state 
into which he fell is described : " And there remained no 
strength in me : for my comeliness was turned in me into 
corruption and I retained no strength," i. <?., his physical 
vitality left him and a deadly pallor supervened. " Yet 
heard I the voice of his words." He heard, not with the 
external, but with the inner spiritual sense of hearing. 
In chapter viii., on a similar occasion it is plainly stated, 
verse 18, " Now, as he was speaking with me, I fell into 
a deep sleep with my face toward the ground." In 
Zechariah, chapter iv. we read: " And the angel that talked 
with me came again, and waked me, as a man that is 
wakened out of his sleep. And he said unto me, " What 
seest thou ? " Here is a revelation in the form of a vision 
or allegorical representation, but the subject of prophetic 
visions and dreams would require special treatment, 
which cannot be undertaken in this mere outline of such 
phenomena. 

In all cases where the prophet tells us that he saw, we 

* Num. xxii. 38. 



78 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

are not to understand ordinary vision, as in Isaiah vi. i ; 
in Micah i. i ; in Hab. i. i ; in Acts x. n; Rev. i. 12. 
But the special point I wish to call attention to, is the fact 
that in most cases of this kind the external senses are 
closed, and the ordinary normal activities of the mind are 
in abeyance. 

Now, we have to-day, in the United States alone, hun- 
dreds of trance-speakers exhibiting precisely the same 
characteristics as those Biblical personages. Pre-eminent 
among them is Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond in Chicago. 
This inspirational orator, told me that in her ordinary state 
she is not possessed of such knowledge as she gives ex- 
pression to in the trance state. " I could not speak a 
single sentence in my normal state of mind." To Mr. 
L. C. Howe Mrs. Richmond said that though she has 
delivered innumerable discourses during the last thirty 
years, she has absolutely no remembrance of any of her 
utterances. All she does remember is the fact of having 
been on the platform. Another famous lady in this 
line is Mrs. R. S. Lillie, at present residing in Cincin- 
nati. The author of this book was told, likewise person- 
ally, by Mrs. Lillie that her own mind has absolutely no 
part in her eloquent utterances. But entranced she is not, 
as it seems ; for she declared to me that while her tongue 
utters the words given by the spirit who controls her, she 
can carry on a train of thoughts of her own. " When I 
utter an impromptu poem," she said to me, " I often 
wonder, after speaking a line, with what word the follow- 
ing line will end, so as ' to make it rhyme.' At the same 
time I can in my own mind think of other things ; for in- 
stance, while speaking philosophically on high themes, I 
can critically examine the attire of the ladies in the audi- 
ence ; often, on looking at a dress of a lady, I reflect on 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 79 

its shape and make, how it could be made over, and how 
I would trim it, if I had to fit it for my own wear." 
This is paralleled again in the Biblical characters. 
Elisha was a farmer and was in the act of plowing, when 
suddenly Elijah threw his mantle over him. Both were 
susceptible to spiritual influence. Not a line did either 
of them write ; very likely they could not write at all. The 
prophet Amos was by occupation a cow-herd. " The words 
of Amos, who was among the herdmen of Tekoa." " I 
was no prophet ; neither was I a prophet's son, but I was 
an herdman, and a gatherer of sycamores. And the Lord 
took me as I followed the flock and said unto me, Go, 
prophesy unto my people Israel." # 

Thus the parallel is complete between the modus oper- 
andi of the inspiration of the prophets of old, and that of 
our modern, living, inspirational speakers. 

* Amos, i. 1; vii. 14-25. 



So THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



CHAPTER XIII. 

" AS IT IS IN HEAVEN." 

In the preceding chapter I have called attention to the 
fact that in the present stage of human development on 
earth the divine injunction of universal benevolence is 
very partially observed. As a general rule, the strong do 
not "bear the infirmities of the weak." * Only here and 
there we see men and women engaged in " binding up the 
broken-hearted ; " f in ministering to the unfortunate ; 
the poor and the down-trodden ; in trying to heal the 
moral diseases, generally called vice or crime, being the 
offspring largely of poverty and ignorance. Here and 
there we behold noble men and gentle women devoting 
their time and energy to the task of redeeming men from 
sin and degradation ; but the majority of men are as yet 
selfishly engaged in taking advantage of their fellow-men 
in" the struggle" of mere existence. In the household 
alone, the ideal is realized, an ideal yet to be realized 
universally by the human race on earth. Hence the 
prayer : " Thy will be done on earth, as it is in Heaven."$ 
It is not owing to ignorance of the divine law that men at 
present are not united in co-operating with each other ; 
that those who are mighty in intellect and influence do 
not, as a rule, devote their energies to elevate the lowly 
and oppressed ; for it is plainly stated : " Whosoever 

* Romans, xv. i. t Isaiah, lxi. i. \ Matt. vi. 10. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 81 

would become great among you, shall be your servant, 
and whosoever would be first among you, shall be servant 
of all.* In the sequel of this work the reason will be 
stated why hitherto this sublime commandment remained 
on the whole, a dead letter. For the present I merely 
wished to sketch a background for the picture I desire to 
draw of the ministrations of spirits in the higher realms 
of the unseen universe. Throughout this stupendous and 
illimitable universe the higher beings do serve the lower. 
Imagine a high mountain, and men climbing up on all 
sides round about; some are just beginning to ascend, 
being yet at the base ; others are a little way up ; still 
others have climbed higher; so that all parts of the 
mountain are occupied by men in every possible degree 
of altitude. Now, imagine further, that those at the base, 
who are just beginning to climb, are helped by those im- 
mediately above them ; the latter being helped in turn by 
the next higher grade, and so on, up to the highest on 
top ; those above reaching down helping hands to those 
below ; all being ministered to, and all being engaged in 
ministering. The higher one has ascended, the greater 
his power to assist others, and in the exercise of this 
power consists the advancement of all who climb the 
mountain. He who has risen above others has acquired 
more power, a greater momentum ; but he does not use 
this power to push others down, he uses it to help them 
up ; not self-assertion, but self-surrender is his attitude. 
Instead of striving selfishly to ascend higher, ignoring the 
needs of those toiling below him, he forgets self, and 
devotes his energies to help others. Yet, this very self- 
forgetfulness is his progress, his advancement, and, though 
he did not seek it directly, he finds it indirectly, as a 

* Mark x. 43, 44. 



82 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

reward, as it were, for not seeking. " For whosoever 
would save his life shall lose it : and whosoever shall lose 
his life for my sake shall find it." * The Pharisee, literally 
" the Separated" who separates himself from his fellow- 
men whom he regards as sinners, lifting up his skirt, so 
as not to touch them that he might not become polluted, 
is himself polluted by mean self-conceit and egotism. 
The healthy need no physician; the sick need healing; 
virtuous men should seek to reclaim sinners, the righteous 
should try to redeem the wicked from their self-destroying 
course. " As it is in Heaven." Let the reader now 
apply the foregoing illustration to the higher life, wherein 
God's divine injunction of "Love ye one another!'' 
is fulfilled, in universal, spiritual and angelic ministra- 
tion. 

If the old conception of the future state were true, 
namely, that good men and women immediately after 
death are transferred to that kind of heavenly bliss 
which consists of singing the praises of God with golden 
harps in their hands, what aid could they render to their 
unfortunate fellow-men whom death introduces into a 
higher life for which they are not prepared, or which 
reveals their moral diseases or deformities ? Who should 
receive and care for the children arriving daily on the 
heavenly shores ? Singing the praises of God is proper 
enough at proper times, but even down here on earth we 
certainly would regard with indignation the act of so-called 
worship that would consist of praying and singing, in the 
midst of human suffering, mishap, disaster, and other 
perils, where help is needed most urgently. Most, I should 
say all, sensible persons would find this sort of divine 
worship blasphemy. Suppose a great disaster, say a 

* Matt, xvi., 25. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 83 

shipwreck to occur, and the shipwrecked sufferers, half 
starved, sick and bereaved, were to be set on shore, and 
no one to care for them ; all that could render aid being 
engaged in idly singing "the praises of God!" Now 
what is to be noted here is this : that just such ship- 
wrecked persons arrive on the shores of the spirit world 
daily and hourly ; unfortunate men, women and helpless 
children, that need help, sympathy and guidance. " O, 
it's the angels that help them," some will exclaim. 
Most assuredly, gentle readers, it is the angels. But not 
the winged creatures of your imagination. Nay, the very 
men and women whom you have supposed sitting upon 
thrones, with crowns on their heads, golden harps in their 
hands, shouting hymns, these are the ministering angels 
that help their fellow-men. This is their worship ; this the 
homage they pay to our Heavenly Father ; they worship 
by doing the Father's will. " Not every one that saith 
unto me, Lord, Lord, shall enter into the Kingdom of 
Heaven ; but he that doeth the will of my Father which is 
in Heaven." * Then shall the King say unto them on his 
right hand, Come, ye blessed of my Father, inherit the 
Kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the 
world : for I was an hungered, and ye gave me meat ; I 
was thirsty, and ye gave me drink ; I was a stranger, and 
ye took me in •, naked, and ye clothed me j I was sick 
and ye visited me ; I was in prison and ye came unto me. 
Then shall the righteous answer him, saying, Lord, when 
saw we thee an hungered, and fed thee ? or athirst, and 
gave thee drink ? and when saw we thee a stranger, and 
took thee in ? or naked, and clothed thee ? and when saw 
we thee sick, or in prison and came unto thee ? And the 
King shall answer and say unto them, Verily I say unto 
* Matt. vii. 21-22. 



84 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

you, Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of 
these my brethren, ye have done it unto me." * 

As said above, helping the unfortunate is a means of 
advancement. Self-seeking is retrogression ; is indeed 
finding the lower, but it is losing the higher. And " what 
shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and lose 
his own soul ? " f As to the need of ministration, let the 
reader consider for a moment what sort of people are 
daily born into the higher life ! Some entirely absorbed 
in material pursuits, never giving a thought to anything 
else, being of the earth, earthy. Having starved, as it 
were, the spirit within, they arrive in the spirit world as 
veritable paupers. Or go a step farther down the scale 
of human evolution and contemplate the fate of those 
who have perverted their nature, who are guilty of crimes 
committed against self or against others. Now, what will 
be their condition when they unmask, for at death all are 
unmasked. Shame, bitter remorse, despair seizes them. 
Here are diseased wretches that need healing, sympathy, 
loving hearts that will show them the way out of their 
darkened condition. Who would not throw himself into 
the arms of one's own mother, and say : " O mother, I am 
miserable ; I come to thee for succor ; comfort thou me ; 
thou on whose bosom I nestled when a babe ! " " As 
one whom his mother comforteth." t For " Can a woman 
forget her child, that she should not have compassion on 
the son of her womb ? " § The transfigured mother who 
had passed to the higher life before her wayward son, is 
not a stranger to him ; she has attended and watched 
over him even more tenderly and affectionately since her 
translation ; she knows all about him, and the son, 

* Matt. xxv. 34-40. t Mark. viii. ifi- 

\ Isaiah lxvi. 13. § Isaiah xlix. 15. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 85 

morally diseased, is safe in the hands of such a nurse. 
This touches upon the subject of Guardian Spirits, on 
which I cannot dilate in these outlines. Perhaps in 
another book that I may write, I shall present these de- 
tails, so interesting and instructive. For the present it 
must suffice to remark, that there are innumerable bands 
of spirits engaged in this missionary work of the good 
Samaritan. * 

"The variety of states after death is greater, if pos- 
sible, than the variety of human lives upon this earth." f 
" It takes all sorts of people to make a world," is as ap- 
plicable to the spiritual sphere of existence as to earth- 
life. How sublime the divine dispensations of Providence, 
whereby, throughout the spiritual realms of immensity, the 
higher minister unto the lower, these higher being minis- 
tered to in turn by beings still higher, and these by still 
higher, celestial beings, in the hierarchy of the Kingdom 
of God above. Oh, may God's will be done on earth "As 
it is in Heaven" 

* Luke x. 33. 

t Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 165. 



86 THE RELIGION OE THE FUTURE. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

RETRIBUTION. 

There is patience required on the part of the reader 
in the perusal of this work. The subject is stupendous, 
all-important, and all-comprehensive ; dealing, as it does, 
with the whole problem of human existence. Many 
points can only be alluded to, or briefly touched upon 
in a synoptical treatise like this. There will probably 
start up in the reader's mind many queries, if not objec- 
tions, which I hope will find an answer in the sequel ; 
or hints and suggestions will be given by which the 
unbiased reader will himself find his way out of per- 
plexity. A calm perusal of these facts is requisite, as 
well as a disregard of traditional notions with which 
they seem to conflict. What we want to get at, is truth. 
There can be no useful errors ; there are no harmful 
truths. " Let the dead bury their dead." * I write not 
for those who are prejudiced; I know that compara- 
tively few minds are prepared for receiving new ideas. 
Men love fixed creeds, not only in theology, but in science 
likewise. One of the greatest pains to human nature is 
the pain of a new idea. It is, as common people say, 
so " upsetting ; " it makes you think that, after all, your 
favorite notions may be wrong, your firmest beliefs ill- 
founded ; it is certain that till now there was no place 
allotted in your mind to the new and startling inhabitant, 
* Matt, viii., 22. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 87 

and now that it has conquered an entrance, you do not 
at once see which of your old ideas it will or will not turn 
out, with which of them it can be reconciled, and with 
which it is at essential enmity. 

"Naturally, therefore, common men hate a new idea, 
and are disposed more or less to ill-treat the original man 
who brings it. Even nations with long habits of discus- 
sion are intolerant enough."* The most enlightened 
nation on the face of the globe, the ancient Greeks, had 
not patience enough to listen calmly to the novel views of 
Socrates. The greatest moral genius the world has seen 
was crucified between two thieves. May I here call atten- 
tion to a little book that ought to be read by every fair- 
minded man and woman : John Stuart Miffs Essay on 
Liberty. 

Modern physical science has given us novelties enough : 
why should we not be ready to accept new and higher 
truths in psychic science ? If men had been mistaken 
in regard to the material universe ; if modern astronomy 
and biology have created for us a new heaven and a new 
earth ; why should we be reluctant to accept new views in 
regard to the moral or spirtual universe ? 

Without endorsing the main thesis of Mr. Fiske's essay 
on The Christ of Dogma, I take the liberty to quote his 
remarks concerning ancient views of the world. " In the 
Jewish theory the universe is like a sort of three-story 
house. The flat earth rests upon the waters, and under 
the earth's surface is the land of graves, called Sheol, 
where after death the souls of all men go, the righteous 
as well as the wicked, for the Jew had not arrived at the 
doctrine of heaven and hell. The Hebrew Sheol corre- 
sponds strictly to the Greek Hades, before the notions of 

* Physics and Politics, by W. Bagehot, page 163. 



88 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Elysium and Tartarus were added to it — a land peopled 
with flitting shadows suffering no torment, but experiencing 
no pleasure, like those whom Dante met in one of the 
upper circles of his Inferno. Sheol is the first story of 
the cosmic house ; the earth is the second. Above the 
earth is the firmament or sky, which, according to the book 
of Genesis, (chapter, i.) is a vast plate hammered out by 
the Gods, and supports a great ocean like that upon 
which the earth rests. Rain is caused by the opening of 
little windows or trap-doors in the firmament, through 
which pour the waters of this upper ocean. Upon this 
water rests the land of heaven, where Jehovah reigns, 
surrounded by hosts of angels. To this blessed land two 
only of the human race had ever been admitted — Enoch 
and Elijah, the latter of whom had ascended in a chariot 
of fire, and was destined to return to earth as the herald 
and forerunner of the Messiah. Heaven forms the third 
story of the cosmic house. Between the firmament and 
the earth is the air." * 

As contracted as the universe was conceived, were the 
views concerning the Deity. God was a kind of magni- 
fied man, says Matthew Arnold. " I remember distinctly," 
writes Mr. Fiske, " the conception which I had formed 
when five years of age. I imagined a narrow office just 
over the zenith, with a tall standing desk running length- 
wise, upon which lay several open ledgers bound in coarse 
leather. There was no roof over this office, and the 
walls rose scarcely five feet from the floor, so that a per- 
son standing at the desk could look out upon the whole 
world. There were two persons at the desk, and one of 
them — a tall, slender man, of aquiline features, wearing 
spectacles, with a pen in his hand and another behind his 
* The Unseen Universe, by John Fiske, page 104. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 89 

ear — was God. The other, whose appearance I do not 
distinctly recall, was an attendant angel. Both were dili- 
gently watching the deeds of men and recording them in 
the ledgers. To my infant mind this picture was not gro- 
tesque, but ineffably solemn, and the fact that all my 
words and acts were thus written down to confront me at 
the day of judgment, seemed naturally a matter of grave 
concern." * 

Probably a good many men and women have no 
higher conception of the divine mode of administering 
justice than Mr. Fiske had when a child of five. 

Commensurate with the ancient views of the universe 
and the Deity, were the views of retribution. There was 
one heaven to which all orthodox believers were admitted, 
and, correspondingly, there was one hell to which all un- 
believers and wicked people were consigned. While " by 
the very nature of the system described there are infinite 
varieties of well-being in Devachan (heaven) suited to the 
infinite varieties of merit in mankind. If ' the next world ' 
really were the objective heaven, which ordinary theology 
preaches, there would be endless injustice and inaccuracy 
in its operation. People, to begin with, would be either 
admitted or excluded, and the differences of favor shown 
to different guests within the all-favored region would not 
sufficiently provide for differences of merit in this life." f 

Has not the prophet of old already said : " For my 
thoughts are not your thoughts, neither are your ways 
my way3, saith the Lord. For as the heavens are higher 
than the earth, so are my ways higher than your ways, and 
my thoughts than your thoughts." + 

* The Idea of God, etc., by John Fiske, page 116. 
t Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 140. 
\ Isaiah, lv. 8-9. 



9° 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



Now, the new spiritual heavens are to be expected to 
be at least as great an improvement as the new material 
heavens are, as contrasted with former notions. " If I 
have told you earthly things, and ye believe not, how 
shall ye believe if I tell you of heavenly things ? " * The 
" carpenter theory " of creation has been supplanted by 
the natural process of evolution, whereby the divine agency 
is not excluded. No one excludes the inventive human 
mind from a machine, however ingenious and automatic 
it may be. Nay, the more exquisite the mechanism of 
any machine, the more we admire the mind that invented 
it. Some unphilosophical minds, however, imagine that 
the moment we find out how a thing is done, we can dis- 
pense with God. " It is all nature ; it is mere natural 
law," is an expression often used by men. But a law is 
only a method, not a cause. 

If now the reader will turn again to chapter i, he will 
find there the true system of retribution outlined, and his 
own sagacity will infer the fuller details. He must not 
exclude the Deity, because the system is natural, and an- 
alogous to human wisdom in educational methods. Mr. 
Herbert Spencer's book on Education has the great merit 
of pointing out the incongruity between a child's failure in 
completing a task and a barbarous cowhiding. The ir- 
relevant punishment leaves the task unfinished and has 
a very demoralizing effect upon the young offender. The 
natural discipline he suggests is simply to compel the 
child to finish the work somehow. The irksomeness of 
doing so, will hardly be resented by the child and will 
serve as warning. It is some years ago that I read Mr. 
Spencer's Education ; but if I am not mistaken there is 
not a single instance suggested of either an arbitrary pen- 

* John, iii. 12. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 91 

alty or reward. The child in doing what is its duty reaps 
the reward, and in neglecting duty it simply punishes it- 
self ; it is made to see by the wise teacher or parent the 
1 consequences" of its conduct. A thing to be done is not 
to be done because somebody commands it ; but because 
it is necessary for the child's welfare and for the welfare of 
others. Not because it is forbidden by any authority, 
human or divine, should man avoid sin ; but because 
sin is self-hurt ; is a transgression of the laws of our being. 
This attitude is called by E. Von Hartmann Autonomy, 
while he calls the wrong attitude Heteronomy. * Already 
the ancient philosopher Job exclaimed : " Look unto the 
heavens, and see ; and behold the skies, which are higher 
than thou. If thou hast sinned what dost thou against 
him ? If thou be righteous, what givest thou him ? Or 
what receiveth he of thine hand."t 

If we observe the laws of our bodily organization, our 
reward will be health and strength ; if we transgress the 
sanitary laws, we punish ourselves, in sooner or later reap- 
ing the evil consequences of our transgression. Why 
should it be otherwise in regard to our moral or spiritual 
constitution? "Say ye of the righteous, that it shall be 
well with them ; for they shall eat the fruit of their doings. 
Woe unto the wicked ! it shall be ill with him : for the 
t doing of his hands shall be given him." X 

I shall state in the next chapter how we can atone for 
our sins ; for atone we must ; that is, we ourselves, and 
no other. " Be not deceived ; God is not mocked : for 
whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." § 

* See Hartmann's great work : Das Sittliche Bewusstsein. 

t Job, xxxv. 5-7. $ Isaiah, iii. 10-11. § Gal. vi. 7 



92 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 



CHAPTER XV. 



REFORMATION. 



We have seen in Chapter II. that Involution precedes 
Evolution ; that man descends from the angelic state to 
matter through involution, and ascends from matter to 
angelhood through spiritual evolution. " Through this 
long line of involution the Soul is making ready to expe- 
rience a voluntary blindness of the celestial state, to ex- 
perience voluntary forgetfulness. As a man preparing to 
descend into the water equips himself, shutting out the 
light of day, shutting out the wondrous sunshine and air, 
to the intent that he may find the pearl that is beneath 
the wave, so in putting on this outside armor of forgetful- 
ness of the Angel, descending into the outward waters of 
the great sea of time, in being thus engulfed, the Soul is 
not only, as Soul, aware, but voluntarily puts aside the 
celestial state for the expression that is to be given through 
matter."* Man must eat of the tree of knowledge ; man 
is not tempted by the devil ; his carnal state involves 
temptation, that he may gain experience and return 
through overcoming, to the state of angelhood. This 
is the Incarnation, or if you will call it so, the " Fall of 
Man." 

"The perfectly unfolded soul is represented astrologically 
in the twelfth chapter of Revelations as a woman clothed 

* The Soul, by Mrs. Richmond, page 22. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 93 

with the sun, in contrast to Adam and Eve, who were rep- 
resented in the Garden of Eden as naked, signifying 
ignorance, though innocent; that is, in a state of moral 
infancy. Their adoption of clothing signified growth in 
knowledge through experience. Eve, though innocent 
and perfect in virgin beauty, wore no crown ; chaste as 
marble, pure as ice, with beauty unsullied, she was still 
no queen, no conqueror. She is the representative of in- 
fantile innocence, but one to whom no one need apply 
for advice or instruction, as she has no knowledge of the 
world or its trials. While fair and pure, she was only a 
little child who could not serve as teacher, counselor or 
guide. Now gaze upon the other picture — a woman stand- 
ing in regal glory, clothed with the sun, the moon beneath 
her feet, a crown of twelve stars upon her head ; a woman 
with all the chastity that could be imagined as pertaining 
to the pure Edenic virgin, but chastity combined with all- 
commanding knowledge, intelligence united to purity, 
love married to wisdom. Between these two, a great gulf 
is fixed ; but it is the Edenic woman who has developed 
into the radiant queen of the Apocalypse."* At one time 
or another every human being must have succumbed; 
must have coped with temptation, must have learned the 
strength and power and guile of the evil propensities, of the 
passions, of appetite, selfishness, and animal malignity, in 
order eventually to triumph over all these, to put all be- 
neath his conquering heel. Man is not a fallen creature 
in the sense of the current Christian theology; he is not 
inherently depraved, bears no hereditary taint from Adam. 
But man may pervert his nature ; he can sink lower than 
brutes, as it were, because while the animal is protected 
by wholesome instincts, man can pervert his instincts ; 
* Studies in Theosophy, Colville, page 227. 



94 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

and he who is destined to such ineffable greatness, has 
the fatal prerogative to sink so low. A. J. Davis, in a very 
remarkable essay on Individual and Social Culture, says: 
"There are three sources of evil. First, progenitive or 
hereditary misdirection ; secondly, educational or sym- 
pathetic misdirection ; thirdly, circumstantial or social 
misdirection. Man is an incarnated divinity, and there- 
fore he is not intrinsically evil though he may be 

bent or misdirected while in the twig state, and grow up 
crooked and despised by sensuous observers."* Man 
is born ignorant, and must work out his own salva- 
tion through overcoming self — the lower self. Mr. W. 
J. Colville says very aptly : " Churchmen have made 
a grave mistake in limiting probation to one lifetime, 
and in regarding as eternal the period which follows 
one life and precedes another. It is utterly impossible 
that a just God should make an eternity depend on 
our acts in one temporal life; but a temporary result 
ever follows a temporary cause." f Man must suffer the 
consequences of his misdeeds, just as he suffers the conse- 
quences of any violation of the laws of his lower physical 
nature. If he has transgressed the laws of health, he will 
have to bear the penalty, and no docter can "forgive him" 
nor can another suffer for his transgression ; he himself 
must atone for his sins ; must by better obedience to law, 
reform his conduct and outgrow the evil. Spiritual mal- 
adies are curable exactly like physical maladies, with that 
difference : physical maladies may become incurable, 
spiritual maladies are never incurable ; man has an eter- 
nity before him in which to reform and regenerate himself. 
Evil is negative, temporary, a mere shadow which will 

* Great Harmonia, vol. ii., page 163. 
t Studies in Theosophy, page 214. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 95 

be ultimately conquered by the light. Eternal hope, not 
eternal damnation is the divine dispensation. The Soul 
is not impelled by God to incarnate itself ; it does so of 
its own free will, and accordingly, it presides over its own 
destiny under the divine dispensation. This is the Au- 
tonomy of the soul. It is the architect of its own fortune, 
carrying within the record of its deeds and misdeeds. No 
need for an outside, arbitrary Power to weigh in a balance 
its good and evil acts, or to keep a book of merit and 
demerit. The book of judgment is within, as the King- 
dom of God is within. Hence Atonement, in the sense of 
appeasing or propitiating, is absurd, as God is not injured 
or offended or "angry." In sinning, we are not rebelling 
against the mandates of an Almighty King. What we 
do by sinning, is simply this : we are transgressing the laws 
of our being, which is self-injury, causing discord within, 
arresting or retarding our spiritual development. No Al- 
mighty Potentate can "forgive" sin, or issue a decree of 
amnesty or pardon. That would interfere with our prog- 
ress, with our spiritual development. "Justice is the 
universal solvent, the sole interpreter of all the mysteries 

of existence It is often our duty to forgive 

others, because we are imperfect. God can never change 
His mind ; He can never change His attitude toward His 
children. Being perfect, He can never become angry, 
and therefore He has nothing to forgive. God is never 
anything but infinite love and wisdom. It is carnally 
human to err; it is humanly divine to forgive; because 
when man forgives, he puts away his own error. It was 
once thought that in the thunder-clap God revealed His 
anger ; the lightning flash was interpreted by the Romans 
as the fury of imperial Jove, but storms are now regarded 
as footprints of Divine Goodness. The true philosopher 



96 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

sees only infinite love and wisdom in everything ; all is 
good, even when incomprehensible. * 

" All Nature is but Art unknown to thee ; 
All chance, direction which thou canst not see ; 
All discord, harmony not understood ; 
All partial evil, universal good ; 
And, spite of pride, in erring reason's spite, 
One truth is clear, whatever is, is right." t 

The old Calvinistic theology has formulated the dogma 
of M Eternal damnation" The new Spiritual Science an- 
nounces the truth of "Eternal Hope" and eternal pro- 
gression. 

* Studies in Theosophy, by W. J. Colville, lecture xi. 
t Pope's Essay on Man. 



PART SECOND. 

THE SOURCE. 



CHAPTER XVI. 



MODERN SPIRITUALISM. 



The movement called modern spiritualism began as 
lowly, as the one of nineteen hundred years ago, called 
Christianity. Christ was born in a stable ; the Spiritualism 
of the nineteenth century was born in a village near 
Rochester, N.Y., in March, 1848. The teachings of Jesus 
were not fashionable in official circles ; only " the common 
people heard him gladly." Though he taught publicly 
and performed miracles, very few of his brethren accepted 
his teachings, or believed that his miracles were wrought 
lawfully. When the reality of the miracles could not be 
denied, they were declared demoniacal, as the work of Satan 
or his emissaries. The a priori -prejudice against the young, 
wondrous teacher was strong. Hailing not from the 
official center of learning and authority, but from an ob- 
scure, despised province, men exclaimed : " Can there 
any good thing come out of Nazareth ? " Yet every one 
could convince himself of the truth by hearing the teach- 
ings and witnessing his miraculous power. " Come and 
see ! " was said to one objector.* But prejudiced peo- 

* John i. 46. 

97 



98 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

pie either refuse to look, or looking, they misconstrue the 
facts. When Galileo in 1609 discovered the moons of 
Jupiter through a telescope invented by himself, he was 
forthwith denounced as a heretic. " Come and see ! " said 
he, " look for yourself ! " But look they did not. It is 
easier to call names than to investigate. When the Car- 
penter of Nazareth had opened the eyes of a man who was 
blind from his birth, the ecclesiastical authorities of the 
Jewish church, seeing the popular sensation the miracle 
had created, forthwith ignored the marvelous cure by rais- 
ing an irrelevant question, namely, " Is it not a desecra- 
tion of the Sabbath to make a blind man see?" Thus 
the learned official authorities.* And when, after the 
death of Jesus, the new sect avowed and promulgated 
his teachings, these were declared to be mere foolish- 
ness by the learned of that age. f " But God hath 
chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the 
wise." % 

It was never the learning, the fashionable education, 
that produced the prophets and seers of the world, though 
mere learning ranked very high in the estimation of men. 
To have official titles and occupy the front seats in the 
synagogue, keeping aloof from the ignorant and trans- 
gressors of the Law, seems to have been the ambition of 
even the disciples of Jesus, as is inferable from the follow- 
ing episode : " In that hour came the disciples unto Jesus, 
saying, Who then is greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven ? 
And He called to him a little child, and set him in the 
midst of them, and said, Verily I say unto you, Except ye 
turn, and become as little children, ye shall not enter into 
the Kingdom of Heaven. Whosoever therefore shall hum- 

*Johnix. 16. t 1 Cor. i. 23. J 1 Cor. i. 27. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 99 

ble himself as this little child, the same is the greatest in 
the Kingdom of Heaven." * 

A recent writer, whose name I cannot ascertain, de- 
scribes the fashionable culture of our age in these words : 
" Many a man educates himself in science for the practice 
of villainy. Scientific culture is often pursued for its own 
sake, without any thought of the added power acquired by 
its posessor to do good in the world. It is often arro- 
gant and aristocratic. Scientific men are often as bigoted 
as theologians. They have never distinguished themselves 
as a class by any unqualified devotion to an unpopular re- 
form. Like priest and Levite, they are every day passing 
indifferently by the claims of the wounded, neglecting the 
laboring classes, and joining hands with the great robber- 
chieftains who got rich by oppressing the poor. The ap- 
plication of science to manufacturing in the invention of 
machines for the production of everything that is made with 
the sole purpose of making money faster, is one of the 
most infamous and barbarous cruelties that ever cursed 
the world. When science becomes religious, and religion 
becomes scientific, what we glory in as civilization, will be 
known as the very climax of barbarism. Then men and 
women will think of the age that turned millions of men 
and women for the production of wealth into mere supple- 
mentary wheels and cogs in a great machine, in the same 
light as we do of the age that sustained the Inquisition 
and lit the fires of religious persecution." 

Prophets and Reformers, men of intuition, original 
thinkers, are generally unpopular. To swim with the cur- 
rent is what is expected of prominent men. Jesus lived 
in obscurity ; He was not famous ; He was not in fashion ; 
He created little stir even in His own native place. All his 

L. of C. * Matt - xviii. 1-4. 



ioo THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

disciples forsook him when he paid the penalty for his 
originality. Peter, who was believed to be a rock of stead- 
fastness, denied Him thrice. Nicodemus cautiously ap- 
proaches the Master ; he comes to Him in the night, under 
cover of darkness. Shall a ruler of the synagogue pub- 
licly avow himself an adherent of this unpopular Teacher ? 
Nicodemus is a type of moral cowards, of men who love 
popularity more than the truth. 

Modern Spiritualism is unpopular as yet, though it ex- 
ercises indirectly a powerful influence upon the church ; 
and ministers of all denominations are more or less in- 
fluenced in their preaching by its facts. Henry Ward 
Beecher knew the truths of Spiritualism ; Victor Hugo 
was a Spiritualist ; Queen Victoria believes ; Abraham 
Lincoln, like another King Saul, consulted mediums. No 
honest, persistent investigator ever failed to be convinced, 
and no one ever recanted. Spiritualism is the only means 
of redeeming atheistic materialists from hopeless pessim- 
ism. A scientist of the caliber of Alfred Russel Wallace, 
the co-worker of Darwin, is not so easily deluded, nor a 
man of the capacity of William Crookes, F. R. S., or Pro- 
fessor Zollner of Germany ; Professor de Morgan of Eng- 
land ; Professor Robert Hare, the foremost chemist in the 
United States, Professor Mapes, Judge Edmunds, Prof. 
Henry Kiddle, A. B. Richmond, the acute criminal lawyer, 
and numerous other original thinkers in every civilized 
country of the globe. Within forty years Spiritualism has 
gained more adherents than Christianity had gained in the 
first five hundred years of its existence. It counts its fol- 
lowers by the millions, though, as yet, it has not become 
fashionable or popular. Men are ashamed to confess 
that they have been convinced by irrefutable evidence. 
Generally investigators begin as would-be exposers of 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 101 

Spiritualism, and end by becoming zealous adherents. 
That is to say, investigators who are possessed by what 
Mr. Matthew Arnold calls " intellectual seriousness ; " men 
who really seek the truth in single-minded earnestness ; 
men, moreover, who have the courage of their opinions, 
a rare quality. There are to-day able men in all profes- 
sions, notably in theology, who by investigation have come 
to the truth, who but hesitate to avow it, for fear of losing 
their positions, or because they have not enough courage 
or manliness to advocate an unpopular cause. 

" I have for fifteen years investigated Spiritualism," said 
a popular Unitarian minister, " and I think there must be 
something in it." Societies of so-called " Psychical Re- 
search " have, after years of research, declared that "there 
is something in it, but we cannot explain it." No wonder, 
with their old method of research. The old bottles will 
not hold the new wine. Livingstone taught a negro how 
to use a spoon for eating soup. What was the surprise of 
the great traveler when the negro poured each spoonful of 
soup into the hollow of his hand and thus still ate his soup 
in the old way. " There is something in it," cry the mem- 
bers of the psychical research societies, " there is some- 
thing in it ; but we cannot explain it." We never expected 
you would. But the explanation is already here. If a 
society were appointed to investigate the sun, to find out 
whether the sun shines or not ; and it is already day, and 
the flowers are open, and the birds are singing, and the 
world is moving on joyfully to its appointed task, and the 
society should say : ' Yes, something is true about the sun, 
but we do not know what it is,' the world would have a 
right to laugh and angels to pity." * 

* Lecture by Mrs. Richmond, published in " The Progressive 
Thinker " of January 23, 1892. 



102 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

The following list, compiled by Light, of London, 
England, shows the status of Spiritualism throughout the 
world. 

Testimony as to Spiritual Phenomena. 

The following is a list of some eminent persons who, 
after personal investigation, have satisfied themselves of 
the reality of some of the phenomena generally known as 
psychical or spiritualistic : 

Science. — The Earl of Crawford and Balcarres, 
F.R.S., President R.S.A. ; W. Crookes, Fellow and Gold 
Medalist of the Royal Society; C. Varley, F.R.S., C.E. ; 
A. R. Wallace, the eminent Naturalist; W. F. Barrett, 
F.R.S.E., Professor of Physics in the Royal College of 
Science, Dublin ; Dr. Lockhart Robertson ; Dr. J. Elliot- 
son, F.R.S., sometime President of the Royal Medical 
and Chirurgical Society of London; Dr. Wm. Gregory, 
F.R.S.E., sometime Professor of Chemistry in the Uni- 
versity of Edinburgh; Dr. Ashburner, Mr. Rutter, Dr. 
Herbert Mayo, F.R.S.; Professor de Morgan, sometime 
President of the Mathematical Society of London, etc., 
etc. 

Professor F. Zollner, of Leipzig, author of "Transcen- 
dental Physics," etc. ; Professors G.T. Fechner, Scheibner, 
and J. H. Fichte, of Wurzburg; Professor Perty, of 
Berne; Professors Wagner and Butlerof, of Petersburg; 
Professors Hare and Mapes, of U. S. A. ; Dr. Robert 
Friese, of Breslau ; M. Camille Flammarion, Astronomer, 
etc. 

Literature. — The Earl of Dunraven, T. A. Trollope, 
S. C. Hall, Gerald Massey, Sir R. Burton, Professor 
Cassal, LL. D. ; Lord Brougham, Lord Lytton, Lord 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 03 

Lyndhurst, Archbishop Whately, Dr. R. Chambers, 
F.R.S.E. ; W. M. Thackeray, Nassau Senior, George 
Thompson, W. Howitt, Serjeant Cox, Mrs. Browning, 
Hon. Roden Noel, etc., etc. 

Bishop Clarke, Rhode Island, U. S. A. ; Darius Lyman, 
U. S. A. ; Professor W. Denton, Professor Alex Wilder, 
Professor Hiram Corson, Professor George Bush, and 
twenty-four judges and ex-judges of the U.S. Courts ; Victor 
Hugo, Baron and Baroness Von Way, W. Lloyd Garrison, 
U.S. A.; Hon. R. Dale Owen, U. S. A.; Hon. J. W. 
Edmonds, U. S. A. ; Epes Sargent, Baron du Potet, Count 
A. de Gasparin, Baron L. de Guldenstubbe, etc., etc. 

Social Position. — H.I.H. Nicholas, Duke of Leuch- 
tenberg, H.M.S.H. the Prince of Solms, H.S.H. Prince 
Albrecht of Solms, H.S.H. Prince Emile of Sayn 
Wittgenstein, Hon. Alexander Aksakof, Imperial Coun- 
cilor of Russia ; the Countess of Caithness and Duchesse 
de Pomar ; the Hon. J. L. O'Sullivan, sometime Minister 
of U. S. A. at the Court of Lisbon ; M. Favre Clavairoz, 
late Consul-General of France at Trieste ; the late Em- 
perors of Russia and France ; Presidents Thiers and 
Lincoln, etc., etc. 

What is said of Spiritual Phenomena. 

J. H. Fichte, the German Philosopher and Author. — 
" Notwithstanding my age (83) and my exemption from 
the controversies of the day, I feel it my duty to bear 
testimony to the great fact of Spiritualism. No one 
should keep silent." 

Professor de Morgan, President of the Mathematical 
Society of London. — " I am perfectly convinced that I 
have both seen and heard, in a manner which should 



104 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

make unbelief impossible, things called spiritual, which 
cannot be taken by a rational being to be capable of 
explanation by imposture, coincidence or mistake. So 
far I feel the ground firm under me." 

Dr. Robert Chambers. — " I have for many years known 
that these phenemena are real, as distinguished from 
impostures ; and it is not of yesterday that I concluded 
they were calculated to explain much that has been 
doubtful in the past ; and when fully accepted revolution- 
ize the whole frame of human opinion on many important 
matters." — Extract from a letter to A. Russel Wallace. 

Professor Hare, Emeritus Professor of Chemistry in the 
University of Pennsylvania. — "Far from abating my 
confidence in the inferences respecting the agencies of 
the spirits of deceased mortals, in the manifestations of 
which I have given an account in my work, I have, within 
the last nine months (this was written in 1858) had more 
striking evidences of that agency than those given in the 
work in question." 

Professor Challis, the late Plumerian Professor of 
Astronomy at Cambridge. — " I have been unable to resist 
the large amount of testimony to such facts, which has come 
from many independent sources, and from a vast number 

of witnesses In short, the testimony has been 

so abundant and consentaneous, that either the facts 
must be admitted to be such as are reported, or the pos- 
sibility of certifying facts by human testimony must be 
given up." — Clerical Journal, June, 1862. 

Professors Tornebom and Edland, the Swedish 
Physicists. — "Only those deny the reality of spirit phe- 
nomena who have never examined them,but profound study 
alone can explain them. We do not know where we may 
be led, by the discovery of the cause of these, as it seems, 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 05 

trivial occurrences, or to what new spheres of Nature's 
kingdom they may open the way ; but that they will bring 
forward important results is already made clear to us by 
the revelations of natural history in all ages." Aftonblad 
(Stockholm), October 30, 1879. 

Professor Gregory, F.R.S.E. — "The essential question 
is this: what are the proofs of the agency of departed 
spirits? Although I cannot say that I feel yet the sure 
and firm conviction on this point which I feel on some 
others, I am bound to say that the higher phenomena, 
recorded by so many truthful and honorable men, appear 
to me to render the spiritual hypothesis almost certain 

I believe that if I could myself see the higher 

phenomena alluded to I should be satisfied, as are all 
those who have had the best means of judging the truth 
of the spiritual theory." 

Lord Brougham. — "There is but one question I would 
ask the author : Is the Spiritualism of this work foreign 
to our materialistic, manufacturing age ? No ; for amidst 
the varieties of mind which divers circumstances produce 
are found those who cultivate man's highest faculties; 
to these the author addresses himself. But even in the 
most cloudless skies of skepticism I see a rain cloud, if it 
be no bigger than a man's hand — it is modern Spir- 
itualism." Preface by Lord Brougham in The Book of 
Nature, by C. O. Groom Napier, F.C.S. 

The London Dialectical Committee reported. — " 1. That 
sounds of a varied character, apparently proceeding 
from articles of furniture, the floor and walls of the room, 
the vibrations accompanying which sounds are often dis- 
tinctly perceptible to the touch, occur without being pro- 
duced by muscular action of mechanical contrivance. 2. 
The movements of heavy bodies take place without me- 



106 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

chanical contrivance of any kind, or adequate exertion of 
muscular force on those present, and frequently without 
contact or connection with any person. 3. That these 
sounds and movements often occur at the time and in the 
manner asked for by persons present, and by means 
of a simple code of signals, answer questions and spell 
out coherent communications." 

Cromwell F. Varley, F.R.S. — "Twenty-five years 

ago I was a hard-headed unbeliever Spiritual 

phenomena, however, suddenly and quite unexpectedly 

were soon after developed in my own family 

This led me to inquire and try numerous experiments in 
such a way as to preclude, as much as circumstances 
would permit, the possibility of trickery and self-decep- 
tion. " He then details various phases of the phenomena 
which had come within the range of his personal experi- 
ence, and continues: " Other and numerous phenomena 
have occurred, proving the existence (a) of forces un- 
known to science ; (b) the power of instantly reading my 
thoughts ; (c) the presence of some intelligence or intelli- 
gences controlling those powers That the phe- 
nomena occur, there is overwhelming evidence, and it is 
too late to deny their existence." 

Camille Flammarion, the French Astronomer and mem- 
ber of the Academie Franchise. — " I do not hesitate to 
affirm my conviction, based on personal examination of 
the subject, that any scientific man who declares the phe- 
nomena denominated 'magnetic,' 'somnambulic,' 'me- 
diumic,' and others not yet explained by science, to be ' im- 
possible,' is one who speaks without knowing what he is 
talking about ; and also any man accustomed, by his pro- 
fessional avocations, to scientific observation — provided 
that his mind is not biased by preconceived opinions, nor 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 107 

his mental vision blinded by that opposite kind of illusion, 
unhappily too common in the learned world, which con- 
sists in imagining that the laws of Nature are already 
known to us, and that everything which appears to over- 
step the limit of our present formulas is impossible — may 
acquire a radical and absolute certainty of the reality of 
the facts alluded to. " 

Alfred Russel Wallace, D. C. L., LL. D.— " My posi- 
tion, therefore, is that the phenomena of Spiritualism in 
their entirety do not require further confirmation. They 
are proved quite as well as any facts are proved in other 
sciences, and it is not denial or quibbling that can dis- 
prove any of them, but only fresh facts and accurate de- 
ductions from those facts. When the opponents of Spir- 
itualism can give a record of their researches approaching 
in duration and completeness to those of its advocates; 
and when they can discover and show in detail either how 
the phenomena are produced or how the many sane and 
able men here referred to have been deluded into a coin- 
cident belief that they have witnessed them ; and when 
they can prove the correctness of their theory by produc- 
ing a like belief in a body of equally sane and able un- 
believers — then, and not till then, will it be necessary for 
Spiritualists to produce fresh confirmation of facts which 
are, and always have been, sufficiently real and undis- 
putable to satisfy any honest and persevering inquirer." — 
Miracles and Modern Spiritualism. 

Dr. Lockhart Robertson, — "The writer (/. <?., Dr. L. 
Robertson) can now no more doubt the physical manifes- 
tations of so-called Spiritualism than he would any other 
fact — as, for example, the fall of the apple to the ground, 
of which his senses informed him. As stated above, there 
was no place or chance of any legerdemain or fraud in 



108 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

these physical manifestations. He is aware, even from 
recent experience, of the impossibility of convincing any 
one by a mere narrative of events apparently so out of 
harmony with all our knowledge of the laws which govern 
the physical world, and he places these facts on record 
rather as an act of justice due to those whose similar state- 
ments he had elsewhere doubted and denied, than with 
either the desire or hope of convincing others. Yet he 
cannot doubt the ultimate recognition of facts of the truth 
of which he is so thoroughly convinced. Admit these 
physical manifestations, and a strange and wide world of 
research is opened to our inquiry. This field is new to 
the materialist mind of the last two centuries, which even 
in the writings of divines of the English Church doubts 
and denies all spiritual manifestations and agencies, be 
they good or evil." — From a letter by Dr. Lockhart Rob- 
ertson, published in the Dialectkal Society's Report o?i 
Spiritualism, p. 24. 

Nassau William, Senior. — "No one can doubt that 
phenomena like these (Phrenology, Homoeopathy and 
Mesmerism) deserve to be observed, recorded and ar- 
ranged ; and whether we call by the name of Mesmerism, 
or by any other name, the science which proposes to do 
this, is a mere question of nomenclature. Among those 
who profess this science there may be careless observers, 
prejudiced recorders and rash systematizers ; their errors 
and defects may impede the progress of knowledge, but 
they will not stop it. And we have no doubt that before 
the end of this century the wonders which perplex almost 
equally those who accept and those who reject modern 
Mesmerism will be distributed into defined classes, and 
found subject to ascertained laws — in other words, will 
become the subjects of a science." These views will pre- 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 109 

pare us for the following statement made in the Spiritual 
Magazine, 1864, p. 336 : " We have only to add as a fur- 
ther tribute to the attainments and honors of Mr. Senior, 
that he was (by long inquiry and experience) a firm believer 
in spiritual power and manifestations. Mr. Home was 
his frequent guest, and Mr. Senior made no secret of his 
belief among his friends. He it was who recommended 
the publication of Mr. Home's recent work by Messrs. 
Longmans, and he authorized the publication under in- 
itials of one of the striking incidents there given, which 
happened to a near and dear member of his family. 

Baron Carl du Prel (Munich), in Nord und Sild. — "One 
thing is clear — that is, that psychography must be ascribed 
to a transcendental origin. We shall find: (1) That the 
hypothesis of prepared slates is inadmissible. (2) The 
place on which the writing is found is quite inaccessible 
to the hands of the medium. In some cases the double 
slate is securely locked, leaving only room inside for the 
tiny morsel of slate pencil. (3) That the writing is 
actually done at the time. (4) That the medium is not 
writing. (5) The writing must be actually done with the 
morsel of slate or lead-pencil. (6) The writing is done 
by an intelligent being, since the answers are exactly 
pertinent to the questions. (7) This being can read, 
write and understand the language of human beings, 
frequently such as is unknown to the medium. (8) It 
strongly resembles a human being, as well in the degree 
of its intelligence as in the mistakes sometimes made. 
These beings are, therefore, although invisible, of human 
nature or species. It is no use whatever to fight against 
this proposition. (9) If these beings speak, they do so 
in human language. (10) If they are asked who they 
are, they answer that they are beings who have left this 



HO THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

world, (i i ) When these appearances become partly visible, 
perhaps only their hands, the hands seen are of human 
forms. (12) When these things become entirely visible, 

they show the human form and countenance 

Spiritualism must be investigated by science. I should 
look upon myself as a coward if I did not openly express 
my convictions." 

The author of this work was as prejudiced against 
Spiritualism as the enlightened spirit of the age demands. 
Ridicule and contempt seemed the most fitting attitude 
toward it. He, too, swam with the current of the average 
opinion of educated men and women of our time. It was 
not till 1874 that he for the first time read a serious con- 
troversy on the subject. W. B. Carpenter of England 
tried to explain away all occult phenomena, when Alfred 
Russel Wallace wrote in the Fortnightly Review a powerful 
essay entitled A Defense of Modern Spiritualism, reprinted 
in the Eclectic Magazine of August and September, 1874. 
Absolute proofs, however, came only then when he earnestly 
sought them. There is perhaps not a single town in the 
United States, not to speak of other countries, where there 
are not residing Spiritualists, either organized in societies, 
or unavowed, Motives of secular self-interest keep men 
and women back from an open confession. Fear of ridi- 
cule and of expulsion from the church closes the lips of 
many. Few dare to brave public opinion. More homage 
is paid to Mrs. Grundy than to the august goddess of 
Truth. 

Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, the greatest inspirational 
orator of America, gave expression to the following his- 
torical facts, in the Carnegie Music Hall of New York 
City, March 27th, 1892, on the forty-fourth anniversary 
of modern Spiritualism. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 1 1 

" When the baby was born, nobody knew what to call it. 
It had not been expected ; there had been no prophet to 
announce its coming, unless it was Mother Ann Lee, of 
the Shakers, and she was not an appointed prophet. No 
prediction had been made by seers or kings, and no wise 
men came up out of the east with gold, jewels and pre- 
cious stones to lay at the feet of this new-born babe. As 
the child came into existence, men of science pressed 
their heads, and said, ' It is but another trick ; it has no ex- 
istence ! ' Theologians came and heard the sounds, heard 
the voices through the messengers, heard the children 
speak beyond their years, and they said, 'It is another 
trick of Satan to lead men astray.' Finally men of 
science took a new turn and investigated the matter some- 
what, saying, ' It is an undiscovered law of nature,' 
and stopped there. But the child grew. Some who pro- 
fessed to aid it, did so to obtain notoriety. But we passed 

through this age Spiritualism served as a vehicle 

for anything but the one thing it came to announce. 

" Mr. Beecher is credited with having said : ' If a man 
of the age of forty years has not earned a home, then he 
might as well say his life is a failure, even though that 
man earned but a dollar a day.' Spiritualism has not any 
home ; it is forty-four years old ; it has not any church ; 
it is not accepted in the halls of science, as old as it is, 
but it has a home as vast as the heavens, and the hearts 
of humanity dwell therein. During all the while that 
Spiritualism has been here, everybody celebrates the an- 
niversary of the advent of Spiritualism from the date when 
it came to them. Immortality has been demonstrated 
over and over again since man began to think. Religion 
has been in the world ever since man began to pray. 
Phenomena akin to those of Spiritualism have accom- 



H2 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

panied every religious outpouring the world has ever 
known. There are plenty of people in the world to-day, 
not professed spiritualists, who can reason you into or 
out of Spiritualism. There is a process of reasoning go- 
ing on in the world that can take both sides of the ques- 
tion, and prove either side. All this is possible. The 
scientific method of demonstrating immortality from the 
time of Socrates to the present day is in a philosophical 
mist. Whenever you have received a message for the first 
time from a loved one whom you had mourned as dead, 
that is the beginning of your Spiritualism. You celebrate 
that day forever and ever in your hearts. The moment 
the space has been bridged over, that moment you begin 
to let in new light, whatever the atmosphere may have 
been : the medium through whom the first message came, 
that one is cherished in your heart of hearts forever. 
There is not a medium in the world at the present time 
who has not demonstrated the presence of somebody's 
loved ones who have gone before. 

" Spiritualism is now beyond the period of being 
assaulted ; it is now beyond the prophecy that said this 
child would not live, while science has taken a new light, 
and comes round to investigate Spiritualism by the door 
of psychic research. That is a door that leads to Spirit- 
ualism as well as any other, and no one ever ventured to 
question concerning the manifestations from the unseen 
realm without landing safe and sound in the very midst of 
Spiritualism. A great crop of physical healers, mind 
curers, faith curers, alleged Christian scientists, as well as 
Spiritual scientists, have sprung up from the seeds that 
Spiritualism sowed forty, thirty-two, twenty-five, twenty 
years ago. When Dr. J. R. Newton, the healer of the 
sick, was in New York City, twenty-five or thirty years ago, 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 13 

Bishop Hughes was so startled by the numbers who went 
to the doctor to be healed, that the bishop gave a special 
dispensation to one of the priests of the city to heal the 
sick publicly. Why ? For fear that Dr. Newton, the 
healer, might take away from the papal flock — since mir- 
acles in modern times are not denied by the Roman 
Church. Thousands of spiritual healers have been pass- 
ing on from year to year manifesting their powers ; but 
they having denounced spiritual healing, it would not do to 
call the thing by that name. So long as Spiritualism is the 
thing that the name represents, it will be called by that 
name in the world. 

" No one more than ourselves can possibly respect the 
records of the past of the Spiritualism in the world ; no 
one more than ourselves can know the strong foundation 
upon which these religions rested, and no one has greater 
reverence for the truth so recorded than ourselves. The 
time is now, and is more and more manifest, when theology 
will depend more upon Spiritualism to demonstrate the 
manifestations recorded in the Bible, than Spiritualism 
will depend upon theology. The time is coming when 
the theologian will have to turn to Spiritualism as his 
only refuge, and so show to the people these things to be 
true, that the materialist, the scoffer and the agnostic 
declare to be impossible. Can any one deny that the time 
was ripe for Spiritualism? Can any one say that the 
world was not in great hunger for this new manifesta- 
tion of the bread of life ? Without churches, schools, 
colleges or universities that train priests, Spiritualism is 
the high-priest i?i the world to-day. Spiritualism is the 
interpreter of the new science of life in man's nature." * 

"Both the Old and the New Testaments are full of 
* The Banner of Light, of April 9, 1892. 



114 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Spiritualism, and Spiritualists alone can read the record 
with an enlightened belief. The hand that wrote upon 
the wall at Belshazzar's feast, and the three men unhurt 
in Nebuchadnezzar's fiery furnace, are for them actual 
facts which they need not explain away. St. Paul's 
language about 'spiritual gifts,' and ' trying the spirits,' 
is to them intelligible language, and the ' gift of tongues ' 
a simple fact. When Christ cast out ' devils ' or evil 
spirits, he really did so — not merely startled a madman 
into momentary quiescence ; and the water changed into 
wine, as well as the bread and fishes continually renewed 
till five thousand men were fed, are credible as extreme 
manifestations of a power which is still daily at work 
among us." * 

Though the Spiritual manifestations since 1874 have 
increased immeasurably in quantity as well as in quality, 
it is worth while for the reader to read the essay of A. 
R. Wallace, on account of the lucidity of style and com- 
prehensiveness of treatment of the subject. It has been 
reprinted recently in a volume emanating from the pen of 
Mr. Wallace, entitled Miracles and Modern Spiritualism. 

That we are undergoing a great crisis in religious 
thought, every thoughtful man and woman is aware. 
Our age is pregnant with great changes and reforms. 
" We have reached, religiously, politically, physically and 
spiritually, a certain point, which will develop, as we 
pass beyond it, very great changes, which will reveal that 
which has never been revealed to us before. The earth 
and its products have been steadily rising in the scale of 
being till the present, and that present is pregnant with 

great changes The established religions 

of the world are about to be swept away, and the fine 

* A. R. Wallace, in The Eclectic Magazine, September, 1874, page 
356' 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 115 

gold of good that there is in them is to be revealed. 
Those which have enough to perpetuate themselves in 
the future will do so ; those which have not, will become 
extinct. At certain periods or cycles in the world's 
history, great changes have taken place. It always has 
been so ; it always, doubtless, will be so. As the earth 
has grown older, and man has become more mature, and 
the spirit has gathered to itself elements through which 
it can more perfectly express itself, you must expect that 
the changes that are upon you will be greater than all those 
that have preceded this time in the world's history. The 
present is the most momentous period, at least since the 
Christian era dawned, because it holds within itself so great 
an influx of spiritual truth which acts in religion, in philoso- 
phy, in all the arts and sciences with which you are engaged, 
that it is in one sense overturning the world, mentally 
and socially. Now, every effect has its cause. What is 
the cause of this ? Why, your human minds and bodies 
unfold in correspondence with the growth of the earth. 
As you are passing through changes, so is the earth. 
Materially our planet has grown into that condition, as to 
be able to sustain our connection with those great 
spiritual truths that are finding manifestation through 
human bodies all over the land. The time was when 
these truths could not be uttered." * 

"'You cannot bear them now,' was said of old. In 
these words we may find the clue to the late appearance 
of modern Spiritualism. Certain debasing superstitions 
had to disappear before the world was worthy of it. Why 
not sooner, long ago, centuries since? In reply one 
might suggest that the Atlantic has always been there, 
though thousands of years elapsed ere a Columbus ad- 
* Flashes of Light, pages 343, 363. 



1 1 6 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

ventured its passage. One might ask when the diurnal 
motion of the earth, when the circulation of the blood, 
when the fall of aerolites, were first accepted as truths by 
science." * 

Spiritualism is unlike any religion extant, in that it re- 
quires no faith, no acceptance of any doctrines or prop- 
ositions on mere authority. For its fundamental facts 
it has a solid basis of irrefutable evidence, evidence 
accessible to all, evidence of the senses ; so that for the 
first time in the world's history, the humblest, the most 
illiterate human being can find out for himself those truths 
which hitherto were in the custody of priests. The only 
prerequisite for investigation is freedom from bias or 
preconception, honesty of purpose, and observance of the 
conditions which nature prescribes. Again it can be said 
as of old, but with more literal interpretation : " Seek 
and ye shall find; knock and it shall be opened unto 
yon ! " Again we can reply to those who exclaim : " Can 
there any good thing come out of Nazareth?" " Come 
and see /" 



AIDS TO INVESTIGATORS. 

Besides the works mentioned in the text, the following may be 
consulted : — 

The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism. By Epes Sargent. 
If a Man Die Shall He Live Again ? By Alfred Russel 

Wallace. (A Lecture.) 
Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse. By A. J. Davis. 
Researches in Spiritualism. By Wm. Crookes, F. R. S. 

* The Debatable Land, by Robert Dale Owen, page 198. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 117 

Transcendental Physics. By Prof. Zoellner ; translated by 

C. C. Massey, of Lincoln's Inn, London, England. 
Is Materialization True ? With eleven other lectures by 

Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond. 
Materialized Apparitions : If not Beings from a?wther 

life, what are they ? By E. A. Brackett. 
Religion of Spiritualism : Its Phefiomena and Philosophy. 

By Rev. Samuel Watson, thirty-six years a Methodist 

minister. 
Unanswerable logic. By Thomas Gale Forster. 
What I saw at Cassadaga in 1888 , together with a Review 

of the Seybert Commissioner's Preliminary Report. 

By A. B. Richmond. 
Seers of the Ages. By Dr. J. M. Peebles. Treats upon 

Ancient, Mediaeval and Modern Spiritualism, tracing 

Spirit Phenomena through India, Egypt, Phoenicia, 

Syria, from the days of Christ to the present time. 
Nineteenth Ce?itury Miracles ; or, Spirits and Their Work 

in Every Country on Earth. By Emma Hardinge 

Britten. 
Real life in Spirit Land. By Mrs. Maria M. King. 
The Next World Interviewed. By Mrs. S. G. Horn. 
Strange Visitors. By Mrs. S. G. Horn. 
Immortality and Our Employments Hereafter. By Dr. J. 

M. Peebles. 
Spiritual Spheres (Pamphlet). By Mrs. Cora L. V. 

Richmond. 
Solar and Spiritual Light (Pamphlet). By Mrs. Cora 

L. V. Richmond. 
The Rationale of Spiritualism. By Frederick F. Cook ; a 

paper read before the Chicago Philosophical Society. 
A Book Writte?iby the Spirits of the So-called Dead. Com- 
piled and arranged by C. G. Helleberg. 



n8 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

The Modern Bethesda; or, The Gift of Healing ; etc., being 
an account of the marvelous cures wrought by Dr. 
J. R. Newton. 

The Psycho-Physiological Sciences and their Assailants. 
Being a response by Alfred Russel Wallace of Eng- 
land, LL. D., F. L. S., etc. ; Prof. J. R. Buchanan, 
Darius Lyman, and Epes Sargent. 

Flashes of Light from the Spirit World. By Allan Put- 
nam ; an exquisitively instructive book. 

In Germany the profoundest writer is Carl du Prel, 
Ph. D. His important work, Die Philosophic Der 
Mystik, has been translated in England. All books 
of this kind may be had, as well as catalogues, of the 
Messrs. Colby & Rich, publishers, Boston, Mass. 

Of the weekly papers published in this country, that are 
exponents of the Spiritual Philosophy, The Banner of 
Light, published at Boston, by the above-named pub- 
lishers, ranks first as a pioneer, having been started 
in April, 1857, and continued uninterruptedly until 
now. 

In Cincinnati The Light of Truth, also an excellent paper, 
is published, and in Chicago appears The Progressive 
Thinker. 

The Carrier Dove, another weekly, published in San 
Francisco, is also a good paper. 

Of extraordinary interest are the words of Andrew Jack- 
son Davis, the great Seer of our Age, published by 
Messrs. Colby & Rich. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 119 



CHAPTER XVII. 



PSEUDO-ENLIGHTENMENT. 



Where there is much light, there is much shade. The 
unprecedented progress of modern physical science so 
dazzled scientific specialists, that metaphysics was looked 
upon with disdain, if not with contempt. The progress 
in physiology induced naturalists more and more to seek 
in the nervous system the explanation, if not the cause of 
mental phenomena. Though the more cautious thinkers 
were somewhat reserved concerning the connection be- 
tween body and soul, there was, on the whole, a leaning 
towards the materialistic hypothesis. At any rate, lesser 
minds became more outspoken and decided in the ten- 
dency to adopt materialism. "Water is produced by the 
union of hydrogen and oxygen ; " writes Professor Huxley, 
"we do not assume that a something called aquosity 
has entered ; why then should it be assumed that besides 
protoplasm there is something in living beings called vi- 
tality ? " Yet Huxley is not a materialist ; he is an agnos- 
tic ; but the average student is too impatient to halt be- 
tween two opinions ; and it must be confessed that lan- 
guage like the following is misleading to men not acquainted 
with the fundamental principles of philosophy or even 
psychology. Professor Huxley says : "The materialistic 
terminology is in every way to be preferred, for it con- 
nects thought with the other phenomena of the universe. 



120 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Thus there can be little doubt that the further 

science advances, the more extensively and consistently 
will all the phenomena of nature be represented by 
materialistic formulae and symbols."* From symbols to 
reality is an easy step. The average educated or mis- 
educated youth is about to emancipate himself from the 
religion in which he was brought up ; he is apt to go from 
one extreme into another. The average physician, too, 
has little time for more profound psychological researches, 
so he adopts a theory which his experience seems to con- 
firm every day. There is so much sound common-sense, 
as it were, in materials, that ordinary educated men and 
women easily become ensnared in it. Even scientific 
specialists are apt to forget that commo?i-sense can no 
more penetrate into the deeper mysteries of nature than 
our eyes and ears. 

The educated may now call the Copernican view of the 
universe common-sense. But we all know that common- 
sense had not discovered the true motion of the planets ; 
nay, the discovery contradicted the senses, as well as 
what we call common-sense. 

Materialism, even after it was disavowed by science as 
a suicidal theory, lingered long, and is lingering yet in the 
minds of educated men and women. 

Now, what was and is the attitude of men of science in 
our age toward the more recondite phenomena of nature ? 
Dazzled by the brilliant results of modern physical re- 
search ; conscious of victories won in the arena of theo- 
logical controversy, concerning astronomical matters and 
the age of the world, it was apparently assumed that the 
principal laws of nature were already discovered, so that 
additional new facts had only to be co-ordinated under, 
* The Physical Basis of Life. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 1 2 I 

and classified with, the ready-made scientific categories ; 
everything belonged either to one or the other pigeon- 
hole. If anything could not thus be co-ordinated or 
classified, it was declared to be impossible. Professor 
Tyndall in his address before the Birmingham and Mid- 
land Institute in 1877, endeavors to show that we are not 
justified in assuming a Soul in man ; he says : " But to 
return to the hypothesis of a human soul, offered as an 
explanation or simplification of a series of obscure 
phenomena. Adequate reflection shows that instead of 
introducing light into our minds, it increases our darkness. 
You do not in this case Explain the unknown in terms oj 
the known, which, as stated above, is the method of science, 
but you explain the unknown in terms of the more 

unknown From the side of science all that we 

are warranted in stating is that terror, hope, sensation, 
etc., are psychical phenomena produced by, or associated 
with, the molecular processes set up by waves of light in a 
previously prepared brain." * The words I put in italics 
express a great fallacy, and are extremely unscientific for 
a man of science. 

" Mr. G. H. Lewes, who was not a scientific specialist, 
but a philosophical thinker, nevertheless fell into the same 
error: " To reach the unknown we must pass through the 
avenues of the known; we must not attempt to reach it 
through the unknown." f The italics are mine. Philos- 
ophy henceforth is with Lewes as with Herbert Spencer, 
a mere generalization of know?i facts. " The truths of 
Philosophy," writes Spencer, "bear the same relation to 
the highest scientific truths, that each of these bears to 
lowest scientific truths. As each widest generalization of 

* The Eclectic Magazine, January 1878, page 73. 
t History of Philosophy, vol. i., page xvii. 



122 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

science comprehends and consolidates the narrower 
generalizations of its own division ; so the generalizations 
of Philosophy comprehend and consolidate the widest 

generalizations of science Science is partially 

unified knowledge ; Philosophy is completely unified 
knowledge." * This novel definition of Philosophy as the 
highest generalization of the facts of science is in accord- 
ance with the Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte. Mr. 
Spencer is about to construct the philosophy of the 
know able. He need not wait for any more new data in 
the domain of matter or in the province of mind. The 
First Principles are already ascertained. The materials 
are at hand for the erection of the temple of truth. 
Philosophy in the old sense of the word is doomed. Pro- 
fessor Bain speaks with disdain of metaphysics. Mr. 
Matthew Arnold casts his shafts of ridicule and contempt 
on metaphysical study, while he himself indulges in such 
definitions of religion as " the power, not ourselves, which 
makes for righteousness." How delightfully simple and 
unmetaphysical ! Mr. Lewes is a follower of Comte. 
"Philosophy," says Lewes, "never will achieve its aims, 
because those aims lie beyond all human scope. The 
difficulty is impossibility. No progress can be made be- 
cause no certainty is possible. To aspire to the knowl- 
edge of more than phenomena — their resemblances, co- 
existences and successions — is to aspire to transcend the 
inexorable limits of human faculty." f 

"To influence persons in this frame of mind," says 
A. R. Wallace in his A Defense of Modern Spiritualism, 
" it is evident that more personal testimony to isolated 
facts is utterly useless. They have, to use the admirable 

* First Principles, page 133, second edition, 
t History of Philosophy, vol. i., page xii. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



2 3 



expression of Dr. Carpenter, no place in the existing 
fabric of their thought, into which such facts can be 
fitted." 

This a priori fallacy underlies all the Biblical criticism 
of modern iconoclasts. Renan in France and Strauss in 
Germany endeavored to undermine the belief in the so- 
called supernatural, by which was meant all that is related 
in the Bible that does not fit into the pigeon-holes of 
modern scientific theories. The love of truth, however, im- 
pelled some eminent naturalists to declare, that we are not 
warranted to assume the a priori impossibility of miracles, 
since we do not as yet know all forces of nature. Con- 
sequently they affirmed that the question is solely one of 
evidence. Is the evidence in the Bible for the occurrence 
of marvelous facts sufficient ? Certainly not. We cannot 
cross-examine the alleged witnesses ; and since no such 
marvels occur in our time, where we could examine 
them in the light of modern science, we must reject the 
questionable and vague testimony that comes to us from 
ancient times of superstition. This attitude would be 
defensible, if there were not like occurrences at the present 
day. Nay, in every age and in all countries throughout 
the past there were here and there persons of peculiar 
nervous organization, sensitives, or mediums, as they are 
now called, who were possessed of abnormal powers. 
True, we do not to-day look upon them with awe, as being 
especially favored by God and commissioned to reveal His 
will. We interpret these powers more rationally as throw- 
ing light upon man's mental nature. But to ignore them 
as a priori impossible, or to refuse to witness the mani- 
festations is utterly unscientific ; it is going to the other 
extreme ; it is to deprive ourselves of most valuable data 
for the definition of the human soul. To hold that the 



124 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

miracle proves the doctrine, or that the performer of a 
miracle is divinely commissioned, is one thing ; to deny 
the very possibility of a miracle is another. 

The great mistake of the ancients consisted in regard- 
ing such powers as supernatural ; our mistake consists in 
considering them as products of superstition, hallucina- 
tion or deception. If any person to-day displays extraor- 
dinary healing powers, we say he is abnormally endowed 
with a gift that certainly deserves to be called spiritual, 
if used to alleviate human suffering.* But the ancients 
made the healer a priest, if not a chief and ruler. Mr. 
Herbert Spencer in his Sociology says : " A satisfactory 
distinction between priests and medicine-men is difficult 
to find. Both are concerned with supernatural agents." f 
Carl du Prel says in substance (I am unable now to 
find the passage) : " In the middle ages persons who had 
mesmeric or mediumistic powers were regarded as being 
in league with the devil, as being sorcerers or witches, or 
as being possessed by evil spirits. The Church as well 
as the State authorities were bent to suppress and to 
punish all who manifested any abnormal faculties. Not 
only those were persecuted who used their powers to harm 
others, as can be done to-day by mesmerists, but innocent, 
inoffensive persons were visited by severe penalties, tor- 
ture or capital punishment." " The witchcraft mania," 
says A. R. Wallace in a recent lecture, " which prevailed 
during the middle ages, grew in intensity and horror until 
it culminated in the 16th and 17th centuries, at which time 
thousands and tens of thousands, perhaps even hundreds 
of thousands of persons, most of whom were perfectly in- 
nocent, and many of them far wiser and better than their 

* See 1 Cor. xii., 9. 

t Sociology, part vi., sec. 589. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 125 

accusers, were tortured and massacred in the belief that 
they held actual personal communication with Satan. 
The whole religious world was permeated with a belief in 
diabolism, so that any accusation was sufficient to cause 
a person once arrested as a witch or a wizard to be con- 
victed. Some who visited the sick and healed them were 
accused of effecting cures by Satanic power and burned 

as witches The result was that all having these 

peculiar gifts were exterminated out of the world, and 
naturally the phenomena occurring through their agency 
ceased to exist till a fresh crop, as it were, of these 
peculiarly gifted individuals had grownup." * 

Mr. Lecky, in his important work on The History 0/ 
Rationalism in Europe, says that this change of opinion 
(in our time) was not founded on evidence and reason, 
but merely on feeling and impulse. He admits that the 
facts and arguments were alike in favor of the beholders 
of the reality of the phenomena of witchcraft. Such men 
as Glanvil, Dr. Henry More, and Robert Boyle, the most 
illustrious scientific man of his age, with all the judges of 
England, including Lord Hale, men who had all of them 
either personally investigated the facts or carefully weighed 
the evidence, were met only with ridicule or with the 
weakest show of argument ; when judges refused to con- 
vict and punish witches, the whole subject dropped out 
of sight and knowledge of the intellectual world." Du 
Prel applies to this subject the Darwinian principle of 
selection. " The result was," he says, " that the medium- 
istic faculties in men were suppressed by centuries of sys- 
tematic extermination, so that in this indirect way only 
the normal faculties survived. Suppose all black sheep 
would be exterminated, the negative result would naturally 

* " If A Man Die Shall He Live Again ? " a lecture, pp. 4-5. 



126 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

be the disappearance of dark-colored sheep, and the posi- 
tive result would be that all sheep would be white. Or, 
suppose all white horses were destroyed, or all kinds of 
Indian corn that were of a dark-red color, or imagine any 
variety or sub-variety of plants or animals thus interfered 
with, the result would be similar. On the other hand, if 
man did not exterminate wild beasts, or injurious insects 
or weeds ; or if he did not kill off sheep and cattle for 
food, the result would be an inordinate increase or mul- 
tiplication of these beasts, insects, noxious plants, cattle 
and sheep. So with the decrease of witches, there van- 
ished likewise the belief in witchcraft. The reaction from 
the horrors of persecution was naturally more confined to 
intellectual and humane persons. " They perceived that 
much of what was believed was certainly false ; they too 
hastily concluded that there was no truth underlying. 
The moral result of this was," continues Du Prel, "a time 
of shallow enlightenment. With the lack of empirical 
evidence for the existence of supersensual powers, there 
vanished also the belief in the supersensual and the soil 
was prepared for materialism." 

Mr. Lecky, himself the apostle of modern enlighten- 
ment, declares quite naively in the opening chapter of his 
work, that : " There is certainly no change in the history 
of the last 300 years more striking or suggestive of more 
curious inquiries, than that which has taken place in the 
estimate of the miraculous. At present, nearly all edu- 
cated men receive an account of a miracle taking place in 
their own day, with an absolute and even derisive incre- 
dulity which dispenses with all examination of the evi- 
dence." * 

* History of Rationalism in Europe, by W. E. H. Lecky, vol. i., 
page 27. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 127 

But not satisfied with this negative position, men of sci- 
ence and other literary persons often undertake to declaim 
against those who have by investigation acquired such 
knowledge ; thus proscribing an immense realm of psychic 
manifestations, just because they themselves happen to be 
utterly ignorant therein. The attitude of these enlight- 
ened critics is anything but scientific. Goethe charac- 
terizes this pseudo-enlightenment in Faust, where he puts 
into the mouth of Mephisto these words : 

" Therein I recognize the learned man ! 
What ye don't touch, remains beyond your ken ; 
What ye don't grasp, is hidden from your view ; 
What ye don't see, ye hold to be untrue ; 
What ye don't weigh, for you it has no weight ; 
And counterfeit is all, whatever you don't rate." 

Aye, " There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio. 
Than are dreamt of in your philosophy." 



128 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



CHAPTER XVIIL 

THE PHENOMENA OF SPIRITUALISM. 

"Now, concerning spiritual gifts, brethren," says St. 
Paul, " I would not have you ignorant. Now there are 
diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit. For to one is 
given through the Spirit the word of wisdom ; and to an- 
other the word of knowledge ; to another faith (will- 
power) ; and to another gifts of healing ; and to another 
workings of miracles ; and to another prophecy ; and to 
another discernings of spirits (mind-reading) ; to an- 
other diverse kinds of tongues (languages) and to another 
the interpretation of tongues." * 

Biblical critics of the type of Strauss and Renan, have 
written a good deal of nonsense in regard to these spirit- 
ual gifts. Others, who had also eaten from the tree of 
knowledge of modern physical science were perplexed. 
Even theologians of rational proclivities were ready 
either to deny " miracles " altogether, or to adopt some 
new theory that would satisfy science and at the same 
time save the essence of the Bible. Already humiliated 
by many other concessions such as the six days of 
creation, and other geological and astronomical facts, the 
defenders of the Bible were ready for a compromise in the 
matter now under consideration. The words of Scripture 
had already proved to be so elastic, as to be capable of 

* i Cor. xii., i-io. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 129 

stretching, and even straining for the purpose of making 
the sense harmonize with modern scientific theories. M. 
Renan, whose influence upon the religious thought of our 
time is perhaps greater than that of Strauss, makes short 
work with miracles. " We will admit, therefore," he 
writes, " unhesitatingly, that acts which would now be con- 
sidered traits of illusion or of hallucination, figured largely 
in the life of Jesus." * George Eliot, before she exerted 
her genius in giving to the world her incomparable novels, 
translated Strauss' Life of Jesus into English, and so in- 
troduced the great critic to the English-speaking races. 
" No matter," says Strauss, " how ample the evidence, even 
the testimony of eye-witnesses, we cannot believe a miracle, 
because it contradicts our experience." f But in another 
place in the same book the arch-infidel actually stumbles 
upon the true rationale of miracles without being aware 
of it. There is one and only one definition of a miracle, 
he says in substance, which is unassailable, namely the 
definition which understands by a miracle a phenomena 
wrought by a force or law not yet known to science. In 
that case, however, adds Strauss, the miracle loses its 
evidential value as a supernatural manifestation. $ Ex- 
actly here lies the stumbling-block of Protestant theology, 
according to which miracles are the external evidences of 
Divine Revelation. It assumes 1st, that the New Testa- 
ment revelation is final ; 2d, that it was accompanied 
by miracles ; 3d, that the miracles of the Old and New 
Testaments were the only genuine, lawful miracles in the 
world ; 4th, that miracles ceased with the close of the 
Christian dispensation. 

* Life of Jesus, Translation, New York edition, page 237. 
t Das Leben Jesu, vierte Auflage, page 189. 
I Ibid, page 190. 

9 



130 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

The Catholic Church, on the other hand, more consist- 
ently admits the possibility of miracles at any time, actu- 
ally recording many in the life of the mediaeval saints. 
Both, however, declare the revelation of the New Testa- 
ment final and infallible. The older church vesting the 
infallibity in the Pope, the younger in the Bible. Both 
churches oppose modern spiritualism. The Catholic 
church disdains and rejects any miracle alleged to have 
occurred outside the pale of the Mother Church. If a 
miracle occurs within, it is all right ; if one is reported 
outside, it is declared either to be fraud, or wrought by 
Satan or evil spirits. Protestantism, on the other hand, 
is compelled by its premises to deny modern or mediaeval 
miracles. " I do not dispute the reality of this super- 
natural phenomena," said a Presbyterian clergyman to 
the author. The conversation had been about indepen- 
dent slate-writing, that is, writing obtained without human 
agency. " I do not deny that this is possible, on the 
contrary, I myself have conclusive evidence that such 
writing is actually obtained ; but it is the work of Satan or 
evil spirits, seeking to seduce Christians by false revela- 
tions." On asking him to point out an instance of false 
revelation, he replied : " Your very attitude toward the 
word of God proves my assertion to be true ; you select 
from the Bible what you like, and reject a good deal, 
whereas the book must be believed from cover to cover, 
from Genesis to Revelation." I will not weary the reader 
by recording my rejoinder. (See page 248.) 

Before describing the phenomena, a few remarks must 
be devoted to those vague objections to spiritualism made 
by educated men and women in general, who are free 
from theologic bias. These simply reflect the spirit of the 
times. Men and women who can hardly listen to reports 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 131 

of spiritual manifestations without scorn, or a smile of 
contempt for those who, as they allege, are so weak- 
minded as to be duped by clever mediums. They 
would do anything else rather than examine seriously and 
diligently the evidence at hand, or undertake to acquire 
conviction by personal investigation. " What ! submit 
to such suspicious conditions ? Why must the seance 
room be dark ? the very condition for deception ! " A 
little inquiry and thought would teach them that certain 
electrical sparks can only be seen in a darkened room ; 
that in such subtle phenomena the vibrations of light are 
hindrances, just as the photographer excludes the light 
in his chemical manipulations, being only able to develop 
his pictures in a dark chamber. Every seed must be de- 
posited in the dark soil in order to sprout. All living 
creatures are born out of darkness. Gestation proceeds 
in the dark. 

" The discussion in the Pall Mall Gazette in 1868, and 
a considerable private correspondence, indicates that 
scientific men almost invariably assume, that in this in- 
quiry they should be permitted, at the very outset, to im- 
pose conditions ; and if, under such conditions, nothing 
happens, they consider it a proof of imposture or delusion. 
But they well know that, in all other branches of research, 
Nature, not they, determines the essential conditions, 
without a compliance with which, no experiment will 
succeed. These conditions have to be learnt by a 
patient questioning of nature, and they are different for 
each branch of science. How much more may they be 
expected to differ in an inquiry which deals with subtle 
forces of the nature of which the physicist is wholly 
and absolutely ignorant ! To ask to be allowed to deal 
with these unknown phenomena as he has hitherto dealt 



132 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



with known phenomena, is practically to prejudge the 
question, since it assumes that both are governed by the 
same laws." # 

Darkness is not always a necessary condition at seances, 
many manifestations take place in broad daylight, as the 
reader will find out if he chooses to make inquiries. The 
author has received seven slates full of writings without 
human agency at Cassadaga in August, 1888, in broad 
daylight, with the sun shining fully into the seance room 
through the uncurtained windows. 

Some people classify the phenomena with the tricks of 
jugglers. If they were familiar with spiritual manifesta- 
tions and the circumstances attending them, they would 
certainly refrain from such a comparison. The juggler is 
a professional trickster ; he boasts of his skill of de- 
ception ; he admits it, and deception is his very stock-in- 
trade ; he makes his arrangements, and brings his own 
apparatus ; has his assistants or confederates ; and is 
mostly sure of succeeding in his magic feats. The me- 
dium is seldom beforehand sure of success ; for this 
depends on various subjective and objective conditions. 
Any apartment in any house whatever can be used for a 
seance, and the medium brings to the seance no ap- 
paratus of any kind, nor uses any confederates. If, 
however, unprincipled, mercenary mediums have been 
detected in fraud, it shows merely that there are black 
sheep in every fold. Let the reader consider that there 
are hundreds of thousands of private mediums, men and 
women in all ranks of society, who do not earn money, 
nor are seeking notoriety by being instrumental in the 
production of spiritual phenomena. If one has made any 

* A Defence of Modern Spiritualism, by A. R. Wallace. Eclectic, 
Aug., 1874, page 145. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 133 

inquiries at all, one must have met a dozen private 
mediums in the retirement of family-life, before having 
witnessed the manifestations of professional mediums in 
public seances. 

Three members of the author's family produce auto- 
matic writing, and are at times clairvoyant. Two others 
are also mediumistic, so that there happen to be six 
mediums in his own household, for he himself is strongly 
mediumistic. 

This egotistic piece of information, is, I hope, ex- 
cusable, if it be conceded for once, that the end sanctifies 
the means. It would certainly not have been inserted 
here, if it were not necessary to refute absolutely the 
jugglery hypothesis. Any one who wishes to compre- 
hend how the Messrs. Maskelyne, and Cook, Dr. Lynn, 
or Herr Dobler perform some of their most curious feats, 
has only to read the lecture of Dr. George Sexton, M.D., 
M.A., LL.D., entitled Mediums and Conjurers. 

No less a philosophical thinker than Edward von Hart- 
mann, the author of The Philosophy of the Unconscious, 
committed the exquisite Irish bull of writing a book on 
Spiritualism, in order to prove that the phenomena are the 
sole product of the psychic power of mediums, at the same 
time informing his readers, that he himself never once wit- 
nessed any of the phenome?ia of Spiritualism. 

" Da ich selbst niemals einer Sitzung beigewohnt kabe, so 
bin ich auch nicht in der Lage, mir iiber die Realitat der 
fraglichen Erscheinungen ein Urtheil zic bilden."* 

Yet he is noble and candid enough to refute the above- 
mentioned groundless objections respecting darkened 
seance rooms, alleged tricks of jugglery, and other ac- 
cusations. f 

* Der Spiritismus, page 16. f Ibid, pages 8-10. 



134 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

The German Philosopher is not the only thinker who 
undertakes to judge a subject of which he is ignorant. 
Many and many a writer descants in the magazines and 
journals of the day on Spiritualism without having suffi- 
ciently investigated it. What would be thought of a person 
utterly, or very superficially, versed in the science of 
electricity, who should presume to criticise adversely the 
theories of expert electricians, or to declare a product of 
the inventive genius of an Edison a humbug ? We know 
that a man may be skilled and able in his own profession 
or line of pursuit, without any competency in other lines 
of human research. Evidently the only safe attitude for 
such a man is — silence. "I remember," says Sinnett, 
" when the phonograph was first invented, a scientific 
officer in the service of the Indian Government sent me 
an article he had written on the earliest accounts received 
of the instrument — to prove how the story must be a 
hoax, because the instrument described was scientifically 
impossible. He had worked out the times of vibrations 
required to reproduce the sounds and so on, and very 
intelligently argued that the alleged result was unattain- 
able. But when the phonographs in due time were im- 
ported into India, he did not continue to say they were 
impossible, and that there must be a man shut up in each 
machine, even though there did not seem to be room. 
That last is the attitude of the self-complacent people who 
get over the difficulty about the causation of occult and 
spiritual phenomena by denying, in face of the palpable 
experience of thousands — in face of the testimony in 
shelvesful of books they do not read — that any such phe- 
nomena take place at all.* 

" Meteors or meteorolites were called by the ancients 
* The Occult World, by A. P. Sinnett, page 76. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



'35 



the Arrows of Jupiter, with which expression they des- 
ignated their cosmic origin, not yet having perfected 
their astronomy. A shower of meteoric stones, said to 
have even been foretold by the philosopher Anaxagoras, 
fell near Aigospotamos in 47 b. c, of which one stone, 
blackened by fire, survived yet in the lifetime of Pliny, 
so large that it could scarcely be removed in a wagon. 
The lapidibus pluisse is a current expression of the 
ancients. There is hardly a nation among savages that 
did not believe in stones that ' fall from heaven.' The 
traveler Pallas was informed by the Tartars in 1771, that 
such a stone was in their possession. It was deposited 
upon a flat slate-mountain at Njerim, near Krasnojarsk, and 
was venerated as sacred. In Vienna the stones of twenty- 
two meteoric showers of the past century were kept, among 
which was the meteorolite of Hradschin, weighing 39 kilo- 
grams, which fell on May 26th, 175 1, into an arable field 
in the province of Agram, sinking deep into the ground. 
To this day there can be seen in the consistory, or dio- 
cese, the affidavits of witnesses as to the reality of the 
occurrence, because the learned men of Vienna regarded 
the belief in such fables an inexcusable weakness. As- 
tronomy, it is true, had greatly advanced at that time, but 
must have been considered by them as finally complete ; 
there was no place therein for meteorites. When accord- 
ingly the municipal authorities of Juliac and Barbaton 
sent to Paris a report of a shower of stones, that had oc- 
curred on July 29, 1790, the celebrated physicist, Berth o- 
lon, pitied the irrational public for giving credence to 
such popular clamor, as the thing is physically impossible. 
A genius of the caliber of Lavoisier expresses the suspi- 
cion that those stones, which really had been found hot, 
had been warmed artificially. Even an expert, the astron- 



136 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

omer Laplace, laughed to scorn the belief in meteorites. 
Another astronomer, Arago, on hearing the report of 
Pictet, an eye-witness to another meteoric shower, only 
exclaimed : l Nous e?i savons assez de fables fiareilles? 
It was not till 1803, when near l'Aigle in Normandy, stones 
up to 18 pounds fell with roaring noise from a smoking 
cloud during five minutes, upon a territory four English 
miles in circumference, that people in Paris began to con- 
sider this matter seriously. Though this report was at 
first also ridiculed, and the enlightened newspapers found 
the report of the superstitious burgomaster, with which 
the latter troubled the government, a good joke. Two 
months after, however, the academician Biot was dis- 
patched by the government, who visited the place and 
convinced himself of the truth. Notwithstanding, as late 
as 18 19 when Chladini endorsed the belief, the learned 
scholars not only charged him with folly, but attacked his 
moral character. Chladini reports in his book on Meteor- 
olites, 18 19, that the unbelief of his time was yet so great, 
that most meteoric stones that had been preserved in pub- 
lic collections were thrown away, for fear of being laughed 
at, and regarded as superstitious, although it was conceded 
that the phenomenon was possible." 

Du Prel, from whose work on Die Monistische See- 
lenlehre this interesting account of meteorites is trans- 
lated, adduces in the introductory chapter of that book 
many more instances, showing the undue conservatism of 
the exponents of science. Du Prel calls it the " hered- 
itary mistake of science." The circulation of the blood 
is said to have been discovered already in 1594 but, as 
this author proves from history, it was at first kept secret 
from fear of the Inquisition. When, however, there was 
nothing to fear any more from this quarter, the learned 



THE RELTGION OF THE FUTURE. 137 

laymen bitterly opposed Fra Paolo, the discoverer, all of 
them having been his antagonist for thirty years, with the 
exception of the subsequent convert, Zacharias Sylvius. 
Fra Paolo's whole life had been embittered, and his 
reputation as a practitioner defamed by bringing him into 
the repute of being a fool.* I believe it is Professor 
Bain who states somewhere in his Logic that when 
Harvey first announced the discovery of the circulation 
of the blood, most physicians in England that were over 
forty years of age, rejected the theory. Napoleon I. dis- 
believed in the fact that steam can be used as a motive 
power, but when on his voyage to Saint Helena, he 
actually saw a steamship in full motion pass by. " Na- 
poleon, when apprised by Fulton of his discovery, at the 
Camp de Boulogne, commanded investigation of the 
matter by the Academy of Science. Thereupon this 
learned body proved, mathematically, that the thing is 
impossible as proposed, and called Fulton a visionary." f 

As early as 1766 Anton Mesmer published a dissertation 
on the mysterious power now called by his name ; yet it 
was not till 183 1 that official science grudgingly recognized 
the discovery as a fact. Mr. Sinnett says : " A very 
ludicrous aspect is thus put, for students of mesmeric 
literature, on the ignorant conceit of the dominant ma- 
jority, who were all the while denying the possibility of 
that which was actually occurring." X 

A modern philosopher truly remarks : " That what 
mostly prevents men from discovering truth is not the 
false appearance under which things are viewed, nor is it 
directly the weakness of the intellect ; it is the bias, the 

* Die Monistische Seelenlehre, pages 14-17. 

t Ibid, page 17. 

% The Rationale of of Mesmerism, page 41. 



138 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

prejudice, which, in the form of false assumptions, oppose 
truth and impede progress ; like an adverse wind driving 
the ship from the only direction where land is ; making 
ineffective the agency of rudder and sail." * 

* Parerga, by A Schopenhauer. Quoted by du Pre. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 139 



CHAPTER XIX. 

THE BASIS OF SPIRITUALISM. 

Truth is stranger than fiction. In Shakespeare's 
Hamlet, Scene I., Horatio says to Marcellus : 

" Let us impart what we have seen to-night 
Unto young Hamlet ; for, upon my life, 
This spirit, dumb to us, will speak to him." 

Horatio, who had been away from Denmark, meets his 
friend Hamlet and is informed by the prince how soon 
after his father's death the queen celebrated her wedding. 
Hamlet is grieved ; he thinks of his beloved father. 

Ham. Would I had met my dearest foe in heaven, 

Ere ever I had seen that day, Horatio ! 

My father, — methinks I see my father. 
Hor. Oh where, 

My Lord ? 
Ham. In my mind's eye, Horatio. 
Hor. I saw him once ; he was a goodly King. 
Ham. He was a man, take him for all in all 

I shall not look upon his like again. 
Hor. My Lord ! I think I saw him yesternight. 
Ham. Saw ! Who ? 
Hor. My Lord, the King, your father. 

Ham. The King, my father? 

Hor. Season your admiration for awhile 

With an attent ear ; till I may deliver, 

Upon the witness of these gentlemen, 

This marvel to you. 
Ham. For God's love, let me hear." 



140 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Why, if man survives death, and enters a higher sphere 
of life, should he not be able to return to his former scene 
of activity ? Why indeed ? Is it logically inconceivable ? 
Is there an antecedent impossibility, or even improbabil- 
ity ? Nay, is it not, on the contrary, reasonable to assume 
that the excarnated man, now no more tethered and con- 
fined to certain localities, can go where he desires ? Why 
should not a father or a mother desire to continue the 
watchful care over children left behind ? Does the 
metamorphosis called death make men unnatural, put an 
end to maternal love, extinguish a father's affection, or 
sever the ties of friendship ? Ah, if it were not for pre- 
conceptions, preconceptions of false theology, men would 
antecedently expect that the relations between kindred 
and friends continue, when by death one or the other is 
only optically removed. 

It is with theological preconceptions, as it is w r ith the 
prejudices of mis-educated, so-called enlightened persons. 
Both have become illogical somehow. Our public schools 
and high schools have been accused, and with reason, of 
producing artificial stupidity. The cramming method of 
book-learning is apt to give youths the conceit of knowl- 
edge without the reality ; the " little learning," which is 
dangerous. The stubborn, irrational opposition to Spirit- 
ualism can only thus be explained. Naturally, men are 
not so stupid, hence it must be artificial. " It is related 
of a learned judge, that he once praised a retiring wit- 
ness in the following words : i You are entitled to great 
credit, sir. You must have taken infinite pains with your- 
self. No man could naturally be so stupid.' " 

Let the unbiased reader think for a moment of the 
absurdity of imagining one's transfigured friend six feet 
under ground, or slumbering in a kind of comatose state 



THE RELIGION OF. THE FUTURE. 141 

till the day of judgment, or the " end of the world ! " In 
some regards the inspired poet, by intuition, is true to 
nature, as when he makes the "ghost," appear, " in the 
same figure like the king that's dead. Together with that 
fair and war-like form in which the majesty of buried 
Denmark did sometimes march." For purposes of rec- 
ognition spirits do, as they certainly can, assume their 
former guise. As, for instance, in materializations where 
spirits having died as children, and being now grown into 
youth, or manhood and womanhood, assume the small 
stature of the child, in order to be recognized. 

In other regards Shakespeare shares the opinion of his 
fellow-men, as is evident from the oft-quoted line : 

" The undiscovered country, from whose bourn 
No traveler returns." 

This is no more a truism, but an exploded fallacy. 

Again, the dead are supposed to be in their coffins, 
and "ghosts," must, if they would appear or "walk," 
leave the coffin, the idea being perhaps that the individ- 
ual is by death transformed into a body-less, immaterial, 
no-thing, into a little bluish light, or some such unsub- 
stantial luminosity. Now a " ghost " of this kind, if it 
wishes to appear to mortals, must, if not altogether repos- 
ing within the coffin, at any rate, make use of the old 
body ; must resume the fleshly form. This notion under- 
lies Hamlet's address to the apparition : 

" But tell, 
Why thy canonized bones, hearsed in death, 
Have burst their cerements ! why the sepulchre, 
Wherein we saw thee quietly inurned, 
Hath oped his ponderous and marble jaws, 
To cast thee up again ! " 

The transformed caterpillar, now a winged butterfly, 



1 42 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

soaring freely in its new element, the air, in which, as a 
caterpillar, it could not soar, can certainly visit the old 
cabbage field ; and, if it were endowed with intelligence 
enough, and its mortal friends were susceptible, might be 
conceived as being even anxious to reveal its presence. 
The caterpillar casts off its skin several times before it 
prepares for the final metamorphosis. " In due time — 
sometimes in a few days, sometimes not until another sum- 
mer, and in one instance, after as many as seven years — 
the time comes for the last, and most glorious transforma- 
tion. The poetical Greeks found in this change a type of 
the liberation of the soul from its mortal tenement, and 
its entrance into a higher and happier life ; hence they 
called the Butterfly, Psyche, the soul. This idea is most 
natural. The worm seems to spin its own shroud, to 
make its own coffin, often to enter its own grave. Yet 

within this shroud, this coffin, this grave, it lives ; 

then it bursts its cerements, and emerges in a new and 
beautiful garb, into a brighter existence.* 

If the reader has carefully read the chapters on Sleep, 
and Excursions of the Spirit, he will find no difficulty in 
the fact of spirit-return. That is to say, he will not only 
have no a priori objections, but, if possible, he will, from 
logical necessity, expect such a fact. Given the premises, 
and the conclusion follows of itself. The actual proofs I 
reserve for the next chapter. In this one I merely wished 
to meet the objections of inherited theological notions, 
and refute the illogical assumptions of " enlightened," 
scoffers. 

What Longfellow expressed in the following poem, is a 
reality to-day : 

* Cecil's Book of Insects, Alden edition, page 215. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 143 

" When the hours of day are numbered 

And the voices of the night 
Wake the better soul that slumbers 

To a holy, calm delight ; 
Ere the evening lamps are lighted, 

And like phantoms, grim and tall, 
Shadows from the fitful fire-light 

Dance upon the parlor wall. 

" Then the forms of the departed 

Enter at the open door ; 
The beloved ones, the true-hearted, 

Come to visit me once more. 
With slow and noiseless footsteps 

Come these messengers divine ; 
Take the vacant chair beside me, 

Lay a gentle hand in mine." 

The truth of spirit-return is a most sacred admonition 
for us in the conduct of life. 

" Know ye not our dead are looking 
Downward with a sad surprise, 
All our strife of words rebuking 
With their mild and loving eyes ? 
Shall we grieve the holy angels ? 
Shall we cloud their blessed skies ? " 



144 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



CHAPTER XX. 

THE PROOFS. 

In two ways the truth is established in any department 
of human research : by logic and facts ; theory and verifi- 
cation. In response to the demands of our age, we have 
received sensuous evidence for the truths of Spiritualism. 
Hypercritical persons have, it is true, asserted that we can- 
not trust our senses in such matters. They fail to dis- 
criminate between physical phenomena and metaphysical 
propositions. Edward von Hartmann, a reluctant wit- 
ness, says : " He who considers his five senses incompetent 
to distinguish spiritual manifestations from feats of jug- 
glery, virtually declares the senses of man incompetent to 
establish any facts whatever, and must consequently 
reject all testimony given in courts of justice ; nay, he 
must relinquish all scientific research." # The evidence 
on hand, and daily and hourly increasing is so ample, so 
abundant, so overwhelmingly and absolutely conclusive, 
that those who have long been familiar with these truths 
can scarcely imagine a state of mind utterly ignorant of, 
or disputing them. The allegations of doubting Thomases 
should, however, not be hastily resented by spiritualists. 
Writers on Spiritualism often forget that invective is not 
proof. The author, from experience of well-nigh forty 
years in teaching, always endeavors to put himself in the 

* Der Spiritismus, page n. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



45 



place of those who do not know, or are improperly in- 
formed concerning a given truth. But he stands con- 
founded when confronted by persons who not only are 
not teachable, but who are irrationally determined to 
oppose whatever does not fit into the fabric of their 
minds. He well knows how stubbornly men of a priori 
proclivities resist the truth in our age. Strange, nay, odd 
and unfair objections are raised by such. Mr. Julian 
Hawthorne, in a recent controversy with the Rev. M. J. 
Savage, published in The Arena, protests against the evi- 
dence of the senses : " Hitherto our belief in a world to 
come has been based on an alleged Divine Revelation, 
appealing to an intuitive or supersensuous apprehension 
of Divine Truth." Mr. Savage, referring to the capitals 
in the above sentence, facetiously quotes Professor Huxley 
as saying that "the big capitals always remind him of the 
English grenadiers who wear big bearskin caps for the 
purpose of making little men look more formidable." 
Mr. Savage then remarks aptly: "What is the nature of 
the proof for this that the l alleged divine revelation ' con- 
tains ? Is it not of precisely the same kind, in every 
single instance, that Spiritualism claims to offer to-day ? 
That is, it is the alleged appearance of spirits or mes- 
sengers from the invisible world. Both the Old Testament 
and the New are full of stories of occurrences of this sort. 
And to what do they appeal ? To our poor abused and 
deceptive senses every time. From Jacob wrestling with 
the angel, clear down to the angels at the sepulcher of 
Jesus, on what evidence do the appearances rest ? Surely 
on the evidence of the senses, and on nothing else. Did 
Peter, and James, and John have anything better than eyes 
with which to see Moses and Elias on the Mount of 
Transfiguration?" — The Arena, May, 1891. 

10 



146 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Our age, being skeptical as to the supernatural element 
in the Bible, demands evidence ; but when the evidence is 
presented, fastidious minds reject or disdain to exam- 
ine it. 

Who can explain why the disciples of Jesus, who had for- 
saken the Master when he was arrested, afterwards were so 
zealous in avowing Christ's teachings, and were ready to lay 
down their lives, and suffer martyrdom in promulgating the 
new truths ? Who can explain the paradox, but he, who 
accepts the fact of the appearance of Jesus in a materialized 
body after his death. As a matter of fact, St. Paul rests 
the evidence for the truth of Christianity solely on the 
resurrection. " But if there is no resurrection of the dead, 
neither hath Christ been raised ; and if Christ hath not 
been raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is 
vain.* 

In Chapter VI., we have contemplated the fact, that 
there are dormant in man transcendental faculties, which 
betray their presence occasionally. Already the man- 
dates of conscience are, as was shown in Chapter V., 
glimpses of man's higher self. Then we studied the ab- 
normal states of sleep and dreaming ; the lucidity in the 
magnetic sleep, and in Chapters VIII. to XII., the wander- 
ings of the spirit away from its outward body ; the phenom- 
ena of Second Sight, Clairvoyance, Psychometry, Mes- 
merism or Psychological control, and Inspiration. Logic- 
ally, these phenomena should prepare any one who contem- 
plates them, for the acceptance of the further truth im- 
plied in them, that the spirit world is in close proximity 
to the material world ; that a human being need not, after 
the withdrawal from the fleshly body, travel to any great 
distance, in order to reach the spirit world. The very 

* 1 Cor. xv. 13-14. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 147 

act of separation from the mortal envelope ushers the 
spirit into the higher sphere. In other words, the next 
world is not so much (often not at all) a change of locality, 
as it is a change of organism. It is a transition from the 
outer material, to the inner spiritual sphere of life. In- 
deed Inspiration, as contemplated in Chapter XII, in- 
volves and implies both spirit-return and spirit-communion. 
But there are a good many persons who require, like 
Thomas, tangible or visible proof ; who say with the 
ancient skeptic : " Except I shall see in his hands the 
print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the 
nails, and put my hand into his side, I will not believe." * 
In a very remarkable and highly instructive book of 
Carl du Prel, immortality is proved conclusively from the 
phenomena of somnambulism, and the author asserts that 
Spiritualism is mainly valuable for confirming by empirical 
facts the conclusions derived from somnambulic observa- 
tions and experiments. f Yet not everyone has the time 
and ability to read such psychological treatises, and, there- 
fore, many can only be convinced by facts, facts appealing 
to eye, ear or touch, in other words, by the evidence of 
the senses. " For the cardinal maxim of Spiritualism is, 
that every one must find out the truth for himself. It 
makes no claim to be received on hearsay evidence ; but, 
on the other hand, it demands that it be not rejected 
without patient, honest and fearless inquiry." $ 

In presenting now some typical, representative proofs, 
I am at a loss where to begin, as there is such a variety 
and such an immense number of them. I begin with the 
rap, since, historically, modern Spiritualism began with 
sounds or knockings, which turned out to be signals, by 

* John xx., 25. f Die Monistische Seelenlehre, page 320. 

J A Defence of Spiritualism, by A. R. Wallace (concluding words). 



148 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

means of which intelligent communications can take place 
between human beings in the flesh and beings out of the 
flesh. The author gets these raps daily, mostly on his 
own body, and especially on his teeth, so that he can carry 
on an intelligent communication with spirits at any time or 
hour, day or night, unnoticeable to others. Not being a 
medium for physical manifestations, he rarely obtains raps 
on furniture, on the table at which he is sitting, or upon the 
chair he occupies, or on the floor of the room, that is to say, 
in comparison with the countless raps he gets on his arms, 
neck, temples and many other parts of his body, the raps 
he receives otherwise are less frequent. These sounds 
are sometimes faint, sometimes loud ; they are often like 
the tick of the telegraph, and may increase in loudness 
till they sound like the blows of a heavy sledge-hammer. 

As stated in a previous section, this personal informa- 
tion would not be given, if so much nonsense had not 
been written by way of proving that the rap is fraudu- 
lently produced by tricks. As if private, unprofessional 
mediums, men, women and children in America, England, 
France, Italy, Spain, etc., all had a tacit understanding, 
though unknown to each other, to use a certain trick in 
order to deceive their fellow-men. It is for this reason 
that the author alludes here once more to the many 
thousands of private mediums, though among professional 
mediums not a single case of counterfeit raps has yet been 
proved, as far as I know. 

Mrs. Richmond, in speaking of the raps that occurred 
in the house of the Fox family, says : " The peculiarity of 
these sounds is past imitation. Any one who has heard a 
genuine spirit rap, or any number of them, cannot be de- 
ceived. They do not occur upon the thing, but within it. 
They do not sound like an outside force that knocks 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 149 

against a door, or a window, or a wall, but like a minute 
explosion of something, and that sound, whether on the 
floor, ceiling, glass or wood, or wherever it occurs, has 
this peculiar quality, that it seems as if the power produc- 
ing it was inside of the article or the substance. For this 
reason a great many people, supposing it to be electricity, 
placed the girls, when they were little, on glass plates, put 
their chairs in glass tumblers, put their feet upon plates 
of glass, and the rapping still went on. Not the smallest 
indication by the thousandth part of a vibration was 
there of any electrical property in the rappings. The 
principal force attending them was intelligence, and that 
was the one force that scientific men were intent upon 
studiously ignoring, desiring to find out in the realm of 
material science an explanation of an intelligent manifes- 
tation without ascribing it to intelligence, and of course, 
they never succeeded ; and from the snapping of the toe 
joints to unconscious cerebral action, there never has 
been any explanation that was not utter nonsense, in 
science, philosophy and common sense. 7 ' * 

Now, what is the rationale of the spirit-rap ? Imagine 
yourself, gentle reader, personally present in a room with 
kindred and friends, without being visible, audible or 
tangible to them. Your body being a Thought-body, and 
as such invisible and imperceptible to mortals, you can 
see their thoughts and feelings. Perhaps they are just 
now talking affectionately of you ; but by no means are 
you able to manifest your presence to them. You are, like 
a bird, in a different element from that of a fish. Yea, 
the element you are in differs more from the material plane 
in which your mortal friends are, than air differs from water. 

* Anniversary Address, by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, in The 
Progressive Thinker, of April 22, 1893. 



*5° 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



Now, that is exactly what you will surely experience some- 
times. You yearn to give a sign, signal, or token of your 
presence ; you are eager to assure them that you are not 
dead, that you still live, not a shadowy existence in a 
realm of shades, but a life of more intense activity. Pres- 
ently the door opens and another person enters. You 
perceive at once that this is a sensitive or medium. Now 
the spirit has a chance, however slight, to produce some 
effect. Of himself not being able to act freely in the 
material element of the earth-plane, he borrows from the 
medium as much physical force as is required to produce 
a rap. Let there be an understanding or agreement on 
the part of the medium and spirit, that one rap signifies 
No, three raps Yes, and two raps doubtful, and the 
means of communication are at hand. Or let the Alpha- 
bet be used in connection with the signals. 

The spirit may also use the hand of the medium to 
write. This is automatic writing. Thousands, nay myr- 
iads of messages are thus written continually. My wife 
and two of my daughters write thus automatically, and 
I possess hundreds of messages thus produced. A 
friend of mine who passed away in Chicago over a year 
ago, wrote his name and a few words of greeting through 
one of my daughters. I told him on a later occasion that 
I informed the family he left behind of this, and that, as 
is usually the case, they did not believe. " No," was the 
written reply, " nor will they ever believe till they come 
over themselves." 

Then there is direct writing ; writing, that is to say, ob- 
tained without any human agency; writing in any lan- 
guage, German, French, Italian, Greek, Hebrew, Arabic, 
Chinese, Mexican, Welsh, etc., in the presence of mediums 
who know only English. A very famous species of direct 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



J 5i 



writing is the so-called independent slate-writing, of which 
I obtained specimens, as stated in Chapter XVIII. Draw- 
ings and paintings are also obtained in the same manner. 
If the medium be clairvoyant, the spirit is seen and de- 
scribed, other persons in the room seeing nothing. Woe 
to a murderer who is mediumistic ; he may be pursued 
by the victim, as Macbeth was. (See Scene IV. in Act 
III. of Shakespeare's Macbeth.) 

I will now proceed to another species of manifestation, 
called materialization. I can only present an infinitesi- 
mal fraction of each kind of phenomena, and perhaps 
only very imperfectly, not for want of the requisite 
knowledge, but because I am more concerned with 
the deductions and essential teachings of Spiritualism 
than with the classification of the various phenomena. 
Materialization is the process of investing with a 
material, temporary coating any ethereal or spiritual 
object, parts of the spirit body, or the whole body 
thus making the object or body visible to ordinary 
sight, and palpable to ordinary touch. In Chapter II. it 
was stated, that man is a materialized spirit. Now, in 
the presence of certain mediums, under suitable condi- 
tions, spirits can use the psychic emanations exuding from 
the medium's organism, with which they can fashion a 
temporary material form, resembling the material form they 
inhabited when living in the earthly sphere. I believe 
full-form materialization lasts from a very few minutes to 
a quarter of an hour or even longer. Often the process 
is seen by the spectators. A luminous spot is first beheld 
on the floor, which, increasing in shape, develops into a 
human form. On disappearing, the form, a living man or 
woman of flesh and blood, sinks into the floor, as it were, 
thus vanishing from sight. If the earthly friend happens 



*5 S 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



to hold the materialized spirit by the hand, the hand so 
retained is kept intact, till its turn finally comes to melt 
away, when it dissolves and disappears. 

It is the German thinker, Du Prel, who, after proving 
conclusively that the soul fashions the body of every 
human being, says somewhere in his work, " Die Mom's- 
tische Seele7ilehre" that no one need be amazed at tempo- 
rary materializations in seances, in consideration of the 
fact that man is a materialization enduring for threescore 
years and ten. A good work on this subject is " Mate- 
rialized Apparitions" by E. A. Brackett. The title.of this 
book is in full : If not Beings from A?iother Life, What 
are They ? 

If, like another Rip Van Winkle, one of us had gone to 
sleep, say before the advent of the modern inventions of 
steam and electricity, and would awake now, what would 
be his feelings of amazement on beholding a railway train 
in full motion, or on receiving a telegraphic despatch 
from Europe transmitted on the same day, not to mention 
the telephone, and a score of other marvelous contriv- 
ances ? Naturally the first impulse would be, before see- 
ing those things with his own eyes, and being merely told 
of them, to consider the report a hoax, or to express his 
incredulity. If now the reader will consider that these 
marvels are the product of mind primarily, mind that dis- 
covers, uses and manipulates these subtle forces of nature, 
and that, analogous to the study of matter, we now make 
discoveries and acquire triumphs in the realm of mind- 
research, he will not find the marvels of Spiritualism in- 
credible. 

" How can these things be ? " said Nicodemus. " Jesus 
answered and said unto him, Art thou a teacher of 
Israel, and knowest not these things ? If I told you 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 153 

earthly things, and ye believe not, how shall ye believe, if 
I tell you heavenly things ? " * 

Preparing thus my readers for the last kind of spiritual 
manifestations that I shall mention, and that can be seen 
and proved to be an objective reality by a crucial test, I 
will begin by stating at once what results can be obtained, 
and then proceed to explain, however imperfectly, the 
modus operandi, as well as point out the sources for fuller 
information. As happens often, my father, who died 
when I was a child, left no portrait of himself behind, and 
the knowledge of the tentative processes of photography 
in the year 1841, had not reached the rural German dis- 
trict in which we resided. Naturally, I often deeply 
regretted that I had no likeness of my father. In August, 
1888, I visited the mediumistic photographer, Dr. Keeler, 
at Lily Dale (Cassadaga) Chautauqua County, New York, 
and obtained, to my inexpressible delight, a photograph 
of my father, depicted on the same card whereon my own 
photograph appears. The spirit's bust is seen to the 
right of mine, and the features are quite plain and dis- 
tinct, though usually such photographs are somewhat 
fainter than those of mortals. I possess a photograph, 
besides, of my transfigured mother and two children of 
mine that had died. In the summer of 1889, 1 visited Dr. 
Keeler again and obtained two more photographs, repre- 
senting other deceased relatives, and even the photograph 
of a lady who used to be a member of my flock. Alto- 
gether I am in possession of four photographic cards, 
cabinet size, containing the photographs of twelve spirits. 
The numbers of spirit photographs that are yearly pro- 
duced, especially at spiritualistic camp-meetings, are 
countless. Mr. A. R. Wallace, in his A Defence of Modern 

* John iii. 9-12. 



154 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Spiritualism, gives the particulars of the circumstances 
that attended the discovery of the phenomenon. The 
discovery was accidental. " The accounts of spirit-photog- 
raphy caused many spiritualists in this country (England) 
to make experiments ; but for a long time without success. 
Mr. and Mrs. Guppy, who are both amateur photograph- 
ers, tried at their own house, and failed. In March, 1872, 
they went one day to Mr. Hudson's, a photographer living 
near them (not a spiritualist) to get some cartes de visite of 
Mrs. Guppy. After the sitting, the idea suddenly struck 
Mr. Guppy that he would try for a spirit-photograph. He 
sat down, told Mrs. Guppy to go behind the background, 
and had a picture taken. There came out behind him a 
large, indefinite, oval, white patch, somewhat resembling 
the outline of a draped figure. Mrs. Guppy behind the 
background was dressed in black. This is the first spirit- 
photograph taken in England, and it is perhaps more sat- 
isfactory on account of the suddenness of the impulse 
under which it was taken, and the great white patch which 
no impostor would have attempted to produce, and which, 
taken by itself, utterly spoils the picture. A few days 
afterwards, Mr. and Mrs. Guppy and their little boy went 
without any notice. Mrs. Guppy sat on the ground, hold- 
ing the little boy on a stool. Her husband stood behind, 
looking on. The picture thus produced is most remark- 
able. A tall female figure, finely draped in white, gauzy 
robes stands directly behind and above the sitters, look- 
ing down on them, and holding its open hands over their 
heads as if giving benediction." * Then Mr. Wallace 
goes on to give further instances of photographs increas- 
ing in distinctness and being recognized as deceased rela- 
tives or friends. 

* A Defence, etc., by A. R. Wallace, Eclectic, Sept., 1875, P> 349* 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 155 

Though we have to-day abundant evidence and more 
knowledge on the subject, it is worth while for the reader 
to read Mr. Wallace's lucid account. 

A very few typical cases only can be here adduced. 

The following is from The Light of Truth, January 27, 
1894: 

SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY. 

A PROFESSIONAL PHOTOGRAPHER APPLIES THE TEST. 

I desire to say a few words about Rev. C. C. Howland, 
the medium, and his wonderful gift of spirit photography. 
Being myself a photographer by profession and somewhat 
a believer in Spiritualism, and hearing of this medium's 
powers as a spirit artist, I desired to test them for my- 
self. 

I repaired to the home of the medium, taking with me 
my own camera, plates, etc., as well as a background of my 
own. The medium met me with a pleasant good morn- 
ing. After the usual preliminaries I told him I had heard 
of him as a spirit photographer, and asked him if he had 
any objections to using my camera, plates, etc. He said 
certainly not, and that I might manipulate the instrument 
myself \i I desired to. This proposition suited me, and I 
made an exposure of a plate having no sitter. I told the 
medium I should prefer developing my own plate and 
would take it home and do so, and would let him know 
whether there was anything on it or not. I bade Mr. 
Howland good morning and hastened to my rooms to 
develop the plate. Imagine my surprise to find four faces 
thereon, and after finishing up the picture to find them to 
be exact likenesses of my wife, my father, and my two 
children, all in spirit life. 



156 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

I informed Mr. Howland of our success, but he did not 
seem a bit surprised, for he said he had been tested in 
that way many times. He also informed me that he had 
as good success with a lock of hair or picture sent by the 
person desiring a sitting. He said he could not guarantee 
results, however, as he never knew what he would get. 
Mr. Howland never touched the plate or background. He 
simply laid his hands on the camera when I made the 
exposure, and this was done in the light. I know that 
this is the most wonderful picture that I have ever taken, 
and that Mr. Howland is the most wonderful medium 
that I have ever met. 

Chas. Stafford. 



SPIRIT PHOTOGRAPHY. 

Seeing the card of R. L. Green in the Light of 
Truth — spirit photographer — and not having any ex- 
perience in this phase of mediumship, and being an in- 
vestigator, of course I had but little confidence in obtain- 
ing anything satisfactory, at any rate I concluded I would 
try. I forwarded to Mr. Green my picture, which was 
treated the same as if I were sitting in person. My wife, 
who is a non-believer, in fact, has no inclination to in- 
vestigate, I thought it best not to apprise of my proposed 
sitting until I knew the result. A few days ago I re- 
ceived my spirit photo, and I assure you, dear readers, it 
is more than satisfactory. Five spirit faces appeared on 
the picture, two faces I recognized, and my son, who re- 
cently passed away. I might add that the loss of my son 
was the cause that led me to investigate Spiritualism. 
The other face was that of my father. I handed the 
picture to my wife, and she, without the slightest 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 157 

hesitancy, recognized the faces of our son and my 
father. 

I certainly feel overwhelmed with my success, for I un- 
doubtedly have received evidence of spirit-return. Trust- 
ing you will find space in your most valuable paper to re- 
late this fact for the benefit of my many fellow investiga- 
tors, I am respectfully yours, 

John Y. Golerion. 

The following is from Modern Society, May 28, 1892. 
"A few years ago," says Colonel Burgess Leigh, "the 
favorite daughter of a clergyman in one of the larger 
cities, fell into a decline. The father's grief was bitter as 
he saw the life ebbing. One day when the arrival of the 
rider of the pale horse was hourly expected, the dying girl 
whispered to her father to be resigned. ' We shall not 
even have the comfort which a picture of you would afford, 
for we have none,' he moaned. She seemed to be con- 
scious for an hour or more, when, opening her eyes, she 
again whispered : 'If it be possible, I will come back to 
you, father, and you shall have a picture.' Those were 
her last words, which may be the reason why they made 
such a strong impression on the doctor, although he had 
no faith in the supernatural. Passing a photographic 
studio one day he had an irresistible impulse to enter. 
When he went back to see the negatives, the artist 
noticed a look of disappointment come into his patron's 
face. He inquired wherein the pictures failed to please 
him. The good old gentleman answered kindly that they 
seemed to be very life-like, and that he had no fault to 
find. A few months passed, and Dr. Dean being near 
the same photographer's rooms, felt the same impulse to 
go in. The artist was a little surprised, but supposed 



158 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

that some of the rector's congregation had been pressing 
him for pictures. Good poses were obtained, and when 
the negatives were ready the artist said to himself that the 
doctor would surely be pleased. Dr. Dean examined each 
proof closely, and again an expression of pain and dis- 
appointment overspread his face. At this the photog- 
rapher was hurt, and tenderly and earnestly sought the 
cause, recalling to the doctor the fact that he had been 
disappointed the first time, but would not explain. On 
the anniversary of his child's death, Dr. Dean sat in his 
library for hours. That yearning which those who have 
loved ones know, possessed him. Finally, this gave way 
to a sad sweetness, as something like a soft, gentle pres- 
ence seemed to fill the room. That impulse which he had 
felt twice before seized him. Quietly he rose and pro- 
ceeded to the photographer's and was given a sitting at 
once. It was a balmy, sunshiny day, and the mildest 
zephyr breathed through the open windows. A few days 
later the doctor received an urgent message to go to the 
gallery at once. The operator had just finished a picture. 
As Dr. Dean's eyes rested upon it, he was violently 
agitated. He trembled and sank into a chair, clutching 
the photograph and gazing at it intently. It was a serious 
dramatic scene. There in the picture was a fine likeness 
of the rector, and looking directly into his eyes was the 
face of one not of this world. This face was veiled by 
something like a mist or cloud. 

" i My daughter ! ' the doctor exclaimed. It was a spirit- 
picture, a likeness of his dead child. 

" ' I remember,' said the operator, ' that some cloud-like 
object passed before the camera at the moment I exposed 
the plate. I looked, and it was gone.' 

" Not only the doctor, but all the members of his 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 159 

family and many friends who have seen the photo, 
pronounce the spirit-face a good likeness of their dead 
relative." 

The spirit-photograph I obtained in 1 888 of my mother, 
though distinct, is somewhat dim. I consulted a pho- 
tographer of this city, as to whether anything can 
be done to make it clearer. The man, smiled know- 
ingly, saying : " Ah, I know how such pictures are 
made, it is a delusion." This brings us to the 
counterfeit pictures that have been and that can 
be produced. Mr. Wallace says : " Most persons have 
heard of these 'ghost-pictures,' and how easily they can 
be made to order by any photographer, and are therefore 
disposed to think they can be of no use as evidence. 
But a little consideration will show them that the means 
by which sham ghosts can be manufactured being so well 
known to all photographers, it becomes easy to apply 
tests or arrange conditions so as to prevent imposition. 
The following are some of the more obvious : 

" 1. If a person with a knowledge of photography takes 
his own glass plates, examines the camera used and all 
the accessories, and watches the whole process of taking 
a picture, then, if any definite form appears on the nega- 
tive, besides the sitter, it is a proof that some object was 
present capable of reflecting or emitting the actinic rays 
although invisible to those present. 

"2. If an unmistakable likeness appears of a deceased 
person totally unknown to the photographer. 

"3. If figures appear on the negative having a definite 
relation to the figure of the sitter, who chooses his own 
position, attitude and accompaniments, it is a proof that 
invisible figures were really there. 



160 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

" 4. If a figure appears draped in white,and partly behind 
the dark body of the sitter without in the least showing 
through, it is a proof that the white figure was there at the 
same time, because the dark parts of the negative are 
transparent, and any white picture in any way superposed 
would show through. 

"5. Even should none of these tests be applied, yet if a 
medium, quite independent of the photographer, sees and 
describes a figure during the sitting, and an exactly cor- 
responding figure appears on the plate, it is a proof that 
such a figure was there." # 

Here again let the reader consider that imitation im- 
plies the genuine, that the counterfeit implies the true, 
and that one genuine case of spirit-photography counter- 
acts a hundred cases of fraud. Moreover, there are many 
private men who have become amateur photographers, 
who obtain these pictures. 

Mrs. J. M. Burchfield, wife of a prominent and pros- 
perous business man of Bradford, Pa., a highly esteemed 
lady, obtained through the photographer, Mr. W. M. 
Keeler, three photographs, on one of which there are ten 
spirit faces which she and her husband recognized as 
deceased relatives. Being mediumistic herself, but of 
course not a professional medium, she, after acquiring 
the art of photography as an amateur, obtained in her 
own home nine spirit photographs, on which are seen 
very plainly and distinctly fourteen spirit faces, eleven of 
which are recognized. Mrs. Burchfield has kindly shown 
these photographs to the author and permitted to use her 
name in this connection. 

John T. Taylor, Editor of the British Journal of Photog- 
raphy, a gentleman, says Light, who deservedly occupies 
* A Defence, etc., page 349. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 161 

a high reputation in the photographic world, has been 
conducting experiments with David Duguid as medium, 
and, March 9th, narrated his experience at a meeting of 
the London and Provincial Photographic Association, a 
full report of which was given in the British "Journal of 
March 17th. It is needless to say that he applied the 
most crucial tests known to science during his experi- 
ments. Here is one passage from his report : 

" The psychic figures behaved badly. Some were' in 
focus ; others not so ; some were lighted from the right, 
while the sitter was so from the left ; some were comely, 
others not so ; some monopolized the major portion of 
the plate, quite obliterating the material sitters ; others 
were as if an atrociously badly vignetted portrait or one 
cut oval out of a photograph by a can opener, or equally 
badly clipped out, were held up behind the sitter. But 
here is the point : not one of these figures which came out 
so strongly in the negative was visible in any form or 
shape to me during the time of exposure in the camera, 
and I vouch in the strongest manner for the fact that no 
one whatever had an opportunity of tampering with any 
plate anterior to its being placed in the dark slide, or im- 
mediately preceding development." 

And now for the modus operandi. It is a very simple 
matter. The camera obscura with its apparatus is ex- 
actly like a human eye, though, be it said, by the way, 
the discoverer or inventor of the art was not mindful of 
this. Just as hinges are like the joints in the human body ; 
levers like the bones, pulleys like the tendons, ropes or 
chains like the muscles. Du Prel uses these facts to 
prove that the same Spirit in man created both. We in- 
vent machines and find out afterwards that their proto- 
* The Banner of Light, April 14, 1893. 
II 



i62 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

types exist already in the mechanism of the human bod) r . 
Thus the heart is a pump ; the brain a galvanic battery ; 
the ramification of nerves a telegraphic system ; the skull 
is an arch ; the spine a series of springs ; the anatomy of 
the breast a suspension-bridge ; the ear a piano, the lungs 
a pipe-organ, etc.* 

But this is a digression here. If anywhere, this sub- 
ject belongs more properly to Chapter II. in this book, 
where the fact is stated that the human body is the pro- 
duct of the creative spirit. 

To return, then, to the similarity between a human eye 
and the photographer's instrument. It is a fact that the 
camera or artificial eye has greater visual powers than the 
natural eye. " Vision arises from outside of the eye, from 
light, else we could see in darkness. The optic nerve is 
suscepitble to impressions of light caused by excitation of- 
the retina, its special, terminal organ. The optic nerve- 
fibers convey the change to the brain, the result being 
sight. If light were to act uniformly over the retina, there 
would not be seeing, only a general consciousness of light, 
things, objects, would not be seen. Hence, something 
more is needed for seeing objects, the formation of an 
image on the retina like the camera obsciwa. Science has 
supplemented the very limited vision of man. There is 
only a limited number of vibrations of light or color that 
the human eye can perceive ; but the spectroscope re- 
veals many more. With the aid of telescope and micro- 
scope man enters a region of which he has no possible 
conception through vision, only through mathematics. 
Long before the discovery of added lens that enable man 
to discover the position of planets, mathematics had dis- 

* See the important work of Ernst Kapp, Philosophie der Technik, 
Braunschweig, 1877. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 163 

covered them, and long before the microscope had dis- 
covered the many millions of vibrations of life that are not 
traceable by the human eye, man knew by chemical anal- 
ysis and by mental analogy that these forms of life were 
there." * 

Speaking of the compound solar ray under analysis, Mr. 
Fiske remarks : " First, we have the visible rays of medium 
refrangibility, ranging from red to violet, and sometimes 
called the Newtonic rays. Beyond the violet, in the out- 
lying portions of the spectrum, lie the so-called Ritteric 
rays, of greatest refrangibility, which are not visible, but 
are manifested through their actinic or chemical effects ; 
these are the rays with which we photograph." f 

Already, in 1874, spirit-photography had been conclu- 
sively demonstrated by private gentlemen working inde- 
pendently as amateur photographers in different parts of 
England. Mr. Wallace mentions three ; he says : " These 

separately confirm the fact of spirit-photography 

The experiments of Mr. Beattie and Dr. Thompson are 
alone absolutely conclusive ; and, taken in connection 
with those of Mr. Slater and Dr. Williams, and the test 
photographs, like those of Mrs. Guppy, establish as a 
scientific fact the objective existence of invisible human 
forms, and definite invisible actinic images." % 

The question may be raised as to whether spirits mate- 
rialize to some extent their spirit-forms in order to be 
recognized. Whatever opinion may be formed concern- 
ing this, the following, at any rate, is an example of mate- 
rialization. It is a fascinating story, and if true, stranger 
than fiction indeed. 

* Spiritual Optics, by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, a Lecture, p. 138. 
t Cosmic Philosophy, by John Fiske, i., 119. 
% A Defence, etc., page 352. 



1 64 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

The Harbinger of Light, Melbourne, Australia, says in 
its issue of November ist, 1892, that a photographer of 
Frankfort-on-the-Main, who is not a Spiritualist, con- 
tributes to a professional publication, the Allgemeine 
Anzeigeblatt filr Photografihie, issued in that city, the fol- 
lowing plain, unvarnished statement of facts : 

" I have been a photographer for many years past. 
One day while I was eating my frugal meal, a very beauti- 
ful woman entered my studio, and wished to be photo- 
graphed, because her husband strongly desired to possess 
her portrait. I immediately complied with her wish, and 
took her in various positions, but when I returned from 
the dark-room, the lady had disappeared. The incident 
had an untoward appearance, as I feared I should lose 
by it. Nevertheless I finished the portrait, in the hope that 
the lady might, some day or another, return and pay me 
for it. And a few days afterward she did so. She admired 
the execution of it, although it appeared to me to be a 
little faint. At length she selected one of the copies, 
with these words : ' Place this in your window, and write 
underneath it Margaret Arlington.' This surprised me, 
because, as you know, ladies do not like to have their por- 
traits thus publicly exhibited, and I concluded by supposing 
she was an actress. I thanked her, and she gave me a bank- 
note for two pounds ten (fifty marks), and not having any 
change, I went into the chemist's shop on the ground 
floor, in order to obtain it, and give her the twenty-five 
shillings due to her. I placed the bank-note in his hand, 
or, at least, I thought I did, but he asked, ' Where is it ? ' 
It had disappeared. I searched upon the counter, and so 
did he and his assistant, but nothing could be found. I 
went back, examining the stairway, but no bank-note was 
visible. What was I to say to the lady who was waiting 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 165 

above for her change ? I resolved to tell her what had 
happened, as perhaps I might have received nothing. 
Entering the room I found the lady had disappeared, 
leaving five copies on the table. Here was a pretty state 
of things ! At length I quieted myself with the thought 
that perhaps she was an actress, who was playing me this 
trick by way of advertising herself. At any rate, I deter- 
mined to exhibit the picture in the window. And I did 
well by it. Every day people came to sit, attracted by the 
photograph of the ' beautiful blonde, 5 as they called her, 
the story of which brought me in a good deal of money ; 
so much so, that I would willingly have presented her 
with the five copies of it, and would have thanked her be- 
sides. Still, I had a presentiment that I should, sooner 
or later, hear something of her, and so it fell out. A 
year after the occurrence, a gentleman in traveling cos- 
tume entered my studio, and seemed pale and agitated. 
'There is,' said he, 'in your window, the photograph of 
a beautiful lady. Her name is Margaret Arlington, is 
it not ? ' ' Yes,' I replied, ' that is her name.' ' Do 
you know the lady ? ' he asked. ' Only from having 
photographed her. Perhaps you are acquainted with 
her ? ' I continued. ' She is my wife ; but I never knew 
anything of this photograph.' ' Thus it is,' I rejoined ; 
' the lady informed me that it would give her husband 
great pleasure to possess her portrait, as she had been 
for a long time separated from him.' The gentleman 
turned pale, and, trembling, asked, ' When did this hap- 
pen?' 'A year ago,' I answered. 'My wife died five 
years ago,' said the gentleman ; ' and you will perhaps 
doubt my sanity when I say that last night she appeared 
to me in a dream, saying, " Go through the city ; examine 
the windows of all the photographers, and you will find 



1 66 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

my portrait." The dream was so ?'eal, that I obeyed her^ 
and thus have found her picture here? 

11 I related to him all that had happened, and we were 
both convinced that the spirit of the lady had sat to me. 
I handed over to him the five copies, which appeared to 
me to be the best I had ever taken, and he insisted upon 
paying me for them. I refused, but he laid a bank-note 
for £2$ upon the table and quitted the room. This is my 
narrative of spirits. No one will believe it ; but, never- 
theless, my statement is the sacred truth." # 

The concluding words of this story remind me of what 
Mr. Sinnett has said as to the incredulity of ordinary folk 
in our time. He writes : " The situation may remind 
the reader of the farceur, who undertook to stand on 
Waterloo Bridge with a hundred real sovereigns on a tray, 
offering to sell them for a shilling apiece, and who wagered 
that he would so stand for an hour without getting rid of his 
stock. He relied on the stupidity of the passers-by, who 
would think themselves too clever to be taken in." | 

Although no one need to believe the facts of Spiritual- 
ism on the authority of another, as all can acquire per- 
sonal conviction, it seems to the author inexcusable in 
many enlightened men and women to sneer at things of 
which they are ignorant. " No one, it is true, deserves 
blame for leaving any subject that does not attract him 
altogether unstudied. But, in most cases, people who are 
conscious of limited intellectual resources entertain a 
decent respect for others better furnished. A man may 
be nothing but a sportsman himself and yet refrain from 
asserting that chemists and electricians must be impostors. 
And a chemist may know nothing of Italian art, and yet 

* The Banner of light, Jan. 7., 1893. 
t The Occult World, page 183. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 167 

may refrain from declaring that Raphael never existed. 
But all through the commonplace world, whether in its 
upper or lower strata, people who are ignorant of psychic 
science, encourage one another in the brainless and 
absurd denial of facts exhibited in the encyclopaedias, 
and in even a more grotesque and impudent fashion by 
the newspapers of the day, whenever any of its phenomena 
come up for treatement. The average country grocer, 
the average newspaper reporter, the average student of 
physical science, are all steeped in the same dense in- 
capacity to understand the propriety of respecting the 
knowledge oi others, even if they do not share it them- 
selves, whenever they brush up against any statement relat- 
ing to the work of those who are engaged in any branch 
of psychic inquiry." * 

Can every one investigate spiritualism ? Is it worth 
while to do so ? And what are the essential conditions 
for investigating ? These queries will be briefly answered 
in the next chapter. 

* The Rationale of Spiritualism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 82. 



1 68 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

THE SCOPE OF SPIRITUALISM. 

Spiritualism, in the narrower sense of the word, is the 
knowledge of spirit-return and of the mode of life in the 
hereafter. Men on earth did not originate, nor did they 
by their researches discover this glorious truth. The 
initiative came from the spirit-world ; the denizens of 
the supernal realm first knocked at the doors of toiling, 
struggling, suffering mortals, eager to communicate the 
fact that there is no death ; that what is so-called is but 
" an event in our eternal life ; a birth into a new and more 
perfect state of existence." It may be fitly called divine ; 
for all that is good is of God, and all finite wisdom and 
love are within the Infinite Spiritual Macrocosm. The 
following words recently fell from the lips of Mrs. Cora 
L. V. Richmond, who is controlled by high and advanced 
intelligences : " Mediumship is a formulated process of 
manifesting the life of the spirit-world, disti?ictly engrafted 
by an outside power upon the mental thought of this day 
and generation." 

The information received through modern mediums all 
over the globe is subjected by students to systematic 
arrangement and classification. A consensus is thus form- 
ulated of revelations obtained through mediums. 

But Spiritualism, in the wider sense, is the system of 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 169 

truth revealed by celestial beings to advanced spirits, who 
in turn communicate it to mankind through specially 
chosen mediums, that is ; instruments prepared for trans- 
mitting to mortals the teachings of angels and archangels. 
A system of truth is thus obtained concerning the problems 
of human life, or, in other words, the laws of man's 
spiritual evolution. The great text-book of spiritual 
philosophy now in the world, is The Soul in Human Em- 
bodiments, given through Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, 
Chicago, 1887. This little book of 1 18 pages is designed 
to (i solve the problems of the universe." In order 
to state correctly the relation between Spiritualism, 
in the restricted sense, and the teachings of this great 
work, I can do no better than to avail myself of the 
language of the guides of Mrs. Richmond. On page 69, 
the attitude of Spiritualism towards the Spiritual Philos- 
ophy is described thus : 

" Spiritualism without these lessons is as the moon 
revolving around the earth. In the moonlight of exist- 
ence, limited by certain spiritual states, you may glow 
and shine after the state of earth, but when you find the 
source of the light of the spirit, it is this Soul-life which in- 
cludes all spiritual states and all human existence. Under 
its divine and solvent radiance you are not only recon- 
ciled to birth and death, but to any birth and to the 
death that is in human life ; you are reconciled to all 
different conditions in outward existence ; to all those 
states in spirit-life that are not provided for in theology, 
and that Spiritualism only touches lightly or not at all, 
and cannot explain, and cannot answer." 

Yet the system presented is not one more revelation, in 
the old sense, to be accepted on authority. " Rest as- 
sured," it is said in the valedictory, " that we neither ask 



170 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

you to accept it on our authority, nor will we seek to en- 
force it by argument. Truth, like mathematics, is its own 
demonstration, when the principles on which it rests are 
known." What is meant here is something like the fol- 
lowing : The riddles of existence are here solved ; the 
several answers or solutions are here given. It is for you to 
compare these with the facts for verification. " Not all at 
once can the mind grasp any truth, and never until there 

is preparation from within The presentation of 

truth to the mind is of no avail unless the soul comes 
forth to meet it." (Valedictory.) Psychologists, teachers, 
and philosophical thinkers will understand fully what is 
here asserted. The author at first did not mentally digest 
or assimilate the teachings of this book. His mind had 
first to expand ; his former erroneous conceptions had to 
be erased from his metal tablet. Thus the soil was pre- 
pared for the reception of the seeds of truth. 

The scope of the Spiritual Philosophy is therefore as 
wide as the universe. But, as I shall have to revert to this 
again, let the explanation given here suffice for the present. 

Returning to Spiritualism as a demonstration of con- 
tinued life after death, we can now undertake to answer 
the questions propounded in the concluding paragraph of 
Chapter XX. 

The question, " Is it worth while to study this sub- 
ject ? " is, I hope, already answered by the above remarks. 
" Spiritualism," by which name the whole movement is 
designated, must in time be the religion of humanity ; it 
must be the philosophy which shall reconcile seeming 
inconsistencies, harmonize all discordant forces, be a 
science in relation to human life, which will demonstrate 
to man the immortal truths of the universe, from which 
there can be no appeal ; appearing as a religion, as a 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 171 

philosophy, as a science for humanity, it must assuredly 
spiritualize, broaden out, and elevate the entire human 
soul and bring it into relationship and active sympathy 
with the Divine Mind." Being the highest generalization 
of spiritual facts, it must include all lesser systems, and 
thus constitute a synthesis of all religions ; inasmuch as 
the superior includes the inferior, the spiritual philosophy 
supersedes all theological, man-made dogmas and creeds. 
" When that which is perfect is come, that which is 
partial shall be done away," says St. Paul. I repeat what 
I * have said elsewhere : Modern Spiritualism is as much 
superior to current Christianity, as pristine Christianity 
was superior to the Rabbinical Judaism of Christ's time. 
However great the tendency may be to magnify one's 
own particular denomination, and, by ecclesiastical au- 
thority, declare one's creed absolute and final, time is 
against it, and nature is against it, and God and the 
Divine law is against it. Moses is reported to have said 
concerning the Law : " Thou shalt not add thereto nor 
diminish from it" * Then, after thus making a fixed 
creed, the logical effect was that the great Legislator lays 
down in the same chapter the most barbarous injunctions, 
how heretics should be put to death. " Neither shall thine 
eye pity him, neither shalt thou spare, neither shalt thou 
conceal him : But thou shalt surely kill him." Then he 
goes on to sa)^ that if one city hears that another city 
worships other gods, the good orthodox city shall hold an 
inquisition over the infidels, " and, behold, if it be true 
that the thing is certain, that such abomination is wrought 
among you ; then shalt thou surely smite the inhabitants of 
that city with the edge of the sword, destroying it utterly, 
and all that is therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge 

* Deut. xii., 32. 



172 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

of the sword."* Here was a warrant for the bloody per- 
secutions committed by the unworthy followers of Jesus ; 
just as the command : " Thou shalt not suffer a witch to 
live," (Ex. xxii., 18) served as a warrant for the perse- 
cutions of witchcraft. "Thou shalt not add thereto nor 
diminish from it," is the characteristic of fixed creeds. 
Modern Spiritualism has not only no fixed creed ; it has 
no formulated creed at all. I believe it is Professor Hux- 
ley who said, " If Science were to adopt a creed, it would 
commit suicide." It is the same with Spiritualism. The 
spirit of persecution has not died out yet, even in the 
United States. To wit : On March 2d, 1893, a Bill was 
introduced by Mr. E. Meyer in the legislature of the State 
of Illinois, which was read, ordered printed, and referred 
to Committee on Judiciary. The Bill is as follows :• " For 
an act for the suppression of fortune-telling, and the prac- 
tice of other alleged and pretended arts by means of 
supernatural and occult powers, or otherwise ; to prohibit 
the advertising thereof, and to fix a penalty for a violation 
of this act." It is the fixed creed and the spirit of fanati- 
cism which declares that this is " a Christian country ; " 
which give us the Sunday legislation, the Blue-laws, and 
the legal holidays of Good Friday and Christmas. It is 
the domineering spirit of the Christian Church which 
caused Congress of the United States to manifest for once 
its puritanical littleness in the enactment which closes the 
World's Fair on Sunday. 

Is it worth while to investigate Spiritualism ? which 
will deliver us ultimately from the evil of sectarianism ? 
Spiritualism, which has no creed and no church, which 
uses only the " sweet reasonableness " of Jesus ? (Jesus 
formulated no creed.) Spiritualism, which dispenses with 
* Deut. xiii. 15. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 173 

priests, which is as broad as the universe, and as free as 
the air ? 

The next question : Can any one investigate Spiritual- 
ism ? is easily answered : Does Spiritualism rest on 
facts ? and are those facts within the purview of the 
senses ? I have shown in the preceding chapter that the 
fundamental facts of Spiritualism address themselves to 
eye and ear and touch ; in short, that they constitute a 
body of physical manifestations demonstrable to the 
senses, the same senses that cognize other physical facts 
of natural science. " Come and see ! " is the dictum of 
Spiritualism, not " believe and be saved ; disbelieve and 
be damned ! " If a man live a pure and noble life, observ- 
ing all the laws of his being, in his physical, intellectual, 
moral and spiritual nature, being aspirational, and devoting 
his energies to uplift and benefit his fellow-men, then no 
matter what his notions are concerning God or heaven, 
whether he be Catholic or Protestant ; Jew or Gentile ; 
Atheist or Spiritualist ; that man lays up for himself 
treasures in heaven. 

Yet the author is not one of those who believe that, 
ordinarily, it is immaterial what notions we have concern- 
ing " man's place in nature ; " on the contrary, he believes 
that without the right principles, there can hardly be 
good conduct, no more than there can be practical appli- 
cations without correct theories, in science, art, and the 
various trades and professions. Theory precedes practice 
and moral conduct implies and involves sound principles. 
If Spiritualism is a solution of the problem of human life, 
it ought to be studied. 

And now the question remains as to the conditions 
requisite for investigation. Some of the essential condi- 
tions are : 



174 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

i. Docility; readiness to learn, no matter from what 
source ; not to say : " Can anything good come out of 
Nazareth ? " The question is not : whence do these facts 
come; but are they true? "The true investigator," says 
John Herschel, " will keep his eyes open, as it were, in all 
departments of his researches, in order to espy at once 
any manifestation, which, according to the accepted theo- 
ries ought not to occur ; for these are the facts that lead to 
new discoveries." 

2. Persistence ; patient investigation and study of the 
subtle conditions ; not to conclude from inadequate, insuf- 
ficient observations, that the thing is not true ; but to sift 
the matter thoroughly to the bottom. John W. Edmunds, 
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in the State of New 
York, writes : " It was in January, 185 1, that I first began 
my investigations, and it was not until April, 1853, that I 
became a firm believer in the reality of spiritual inter- 
course." There are persons, it is true, who investigate 
for years and come to no conclusion. The author met a 
clergyman at the Spiritual Camp-meeting at Cassadaga 
in 1888, who said that he had investigated Spiritualism 
ever since its origin in 1848 ; had visited the Fox family 
in Hydesville, Arcadia, Wayne County, N. Y. where 
spiritual raps first occurred, that he had studied the sub- 
ject all these many years (he is a man over 60 years of 
age) and that he has not yet come to a definite conclusion 
either one way or another. A similar instance is given in 
a discourse delivered through Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond. 
One who had been an investigator in the earth-life inspired 
the discourse. " Now, the one addressing you," so runs the 
address, " approached the investigation of the phenomena 
of Spiritualism on the basis of science ; on the basis of 
what is called reason ; using the senses and faculties with 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 175 

which he had been accustomed to judge of other subjects, 
and whether you believe it or not, he never got beyond 
the standpoint of an investigator. Not that there is any- 
thing attached to this term of opprobrium, but sometimes 
it is a disgrace to investigate a subject for twenty-five or 
thirty years and arrive at no conclusion. It either shows 
a very intricate subject, or a very weak mind, or a mind 
totally unfitted and unprepared for the subject that is 
being investigated. The latter I will choose, for the sake 
of self-esteem, as the state I was in. The mind was 
totally unprepared." 

We must not attempt to explain new, unknown mani- 
festations in terms of the known, as was explained in 
Chapter XVII. : For new facts, new categories must be 
created ; the new wine will not keep in the old bottles. 
We would acquire no further additions to our knowledge, 
if we always interpreted the new in terms of the old. 
Scientific experts know well enough that induction 
means something more than the mere collection of 
facts. What is the principle that governs the search for 
facts ? Is the investigator prepared to admit an unseen 
universe with its unseen beings ? Is he perfectly un- 
biased ; free from a priori notions ? Is he ready to accept 
the truth at any cost ? " What will become of science," 
cries no less a man than Professor Wundt, "if we accept 
the spiritual phenomena as true ? " Is this obvious fal- 
lacy not a perfect parallel to the orthodox clergyman's ex- 
planation : " What will become of Christianity if Spiritual- 
ism be accepted as true ? " Bigotry is bigotry, whether 
found in a professor of physics, or in a minister of the 
gospel. 

3. The investigator must not expect in the average spir- 
itual message transcendent wisdom or lofty teachings and 



176 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

revelations. He must remember that the excarnated boor 
is still a boor, though he has a better chance now of 
acquiring culture ; the ignorant, the selfish, the narrow- 
minded, are not suddenly transformed ; moral develop- 
ment is slow and gradual. If then, messages are received 
that are mere twaddle, it is just what is to be expected 
from the average earth-bound spirit. " People sometimes 
ask what kind of messages I get, purporting to come from 
the other side ? If they are not trash ? I generally reply, 
they are about on the level of my average daily mail. I 
get letters not otherwise, not always spelled correctly, not 
always grammatical. But I do not say, these letters come 
from nobody, because they are not up to the level of Plato 
and Shakespeare. . . . Even when a man lies to me, I do not 
doubt therefore that he is alive. It takes a man even to 
tell a lie. If I get a message over the telegraph wires, it 
may be ever so foolish or false, but I know there is some 
kind of an intelligence at the other end.* As a general 
rule, like attracts like. If one is pure and aspirational, 
seeking the truth for the elevation of himself and others, 
he will attract to himself spirits of lofty character. On 
the other hand, it is unreasonable to expect a Bacon, a 
Newton or a Goethe to visit habitually an undeveloped or 
vicious mortal. That is the glory of Spiritualism, that it 
is natural, not preternatural, as to its disclosures respect- 
ing the future state. Mr. A. R. Wallace in a reply 
to Prof. Huxley, says : " Many scientific men deny the 
spiritual source of the manifestations, on the ground that 
real genuine spirits might reasonably be expected not to 
indulge in the commonplace trivialities which do undoubt- 
edly form the staple of ordinary spiritual communications. 
But surely Professor Huxley, as a naturalist and philoso- 

* A Reply to Mr. Hawthorne, by Rev. M. J. Savage. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 177 

pher, would not admit this to be a reasonable expecta- 
tion. Does he not hold the doctrine that there can be no 
effect, mental or physical, without an adequate cause ; 
and that mental states, faculties and idiosyncrasies, that 
are the result of gradual development of life-long — or 
even ancestral — habit, cannot be suddenly changed by any 
known or imaginable cause ?.-... The thing would be 
a miracle, the greatest of miracles, and surely Professor 
Huxley is the last man to contemplate innumerable mir- 
acles as part of the order of nature ; and all for what ? 
Merely to save these people from the necessary consequences 
of their mis-spe?it lives" 

I have spoken of returning spirits, but many spirits do 
not return, for the simple reason that they do not go away ; 
they are the so-called earth-bound spirits. " The earthly 
loves, those belonging to the carnal nature, are not always 
left behind because the spirit has sloughed off the mortal 
flesh. It is the likes and the inclinations, the tendencies 
of the mind and heart, which determine the surroundings 
and conditions of a spirit. If one here fosters selfish- 
ness, becomes filled with the spirit of avariciousness, and 
so overreaches his neighbor, and also commits deeds 
which are not in accordance with the law of brotherly love 
and kindness, his spiritual nature becomes warped, and 
does not unfold in loveliness. Therefore, when he passes 
out of the flesh, he is not qualified to enter the spiritual 
country of light and peace. True, he is a spirit, and so 
are you all spirits, even though walled about by fleshly 
bonds. The likes, the inclinations, the tendencies and 
attractions of that spirit who has lived the life mentioned, 
all tend to weigh him down to the external condition or 
atmosphere. He has not suddenly become a pure and 
good man because he has cast off the outer garment. He 

12 



178 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

may be just as arrogant, just as selfish and impure in 
thought and character as he was before. Such may very 
naturally be drawn into contact with others like them- 
selves who are still on earth." * 

It is well for one who wishes to investigate to read first 
a manual, such as The Scientific Basis of Spiritualism, by 
Epes Sargent ; Miracles and Modern Spiritualism, by A. 
R. Wallace ; Philosophy of Spiritual Intercourse, by A. J. 
Davis ; The Inner life ; Spirit Mysteries Explained, by A. 
J. Davis ; Unanswerable logic, by Thomas Gales Forster. 
The author would advise inquirers by all means to read first 
either one or more of these works, before undertaking 
personal investigation. Any serious-minded man or 
woman who, from pure motives, enters into such re- 
searches, and observes the foregoing conditions, will 
surely be successful. " Seek and you shall find." 

* From an answer from the controlling spirit to a question in the 
Banner of Light, March 25, 1893. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 179 



CHAPTER XXII. 

SPIRITUAL EVOLUTION. 

I now approach the fundamental principle of the spirit- 
ual philosophy, namely, the mode of the soul's eternal 
progression. It is here, especially, where I most feel the 
feebleness of my powers to describe, however compen- 
diously, the process of spiritual evolution. In view of the 
fact, that all the essential principles of evolution are laid 
down in Mrs. Richmond's great work, The Soul, having 
been handed down to the Guides of this medium by 
higher celestial beings, I may well feel a kind of awe in 
attempting to give an abstract of it. But I cannot shirk 
the difficult task of condensing, as it were, into a small 
compass, what should be a large picture with the proper 
distribution of light and shade, it being essential to the 
object and aim of this book. In Chapters I. to III., 
and elsewhere in this work, statements occur which must 
now be substantiated. 

Mr. Herbert Spencer in his Biology speaks somewhat 
tentatively of the future Evolution of man. After re- 
marking that, probably man will not evolve greater bodily 
strength in the course of future development, nor swift- 
ness or agility; he suggests that in mechanical skill, " in 
the better co-ordination of complex movements," he will 
advance " most likely in some degree." " Will it be in 
intelligence ? " he asks next, and answers : " Largely, no 



180 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

doubt." " Will it be in morality ? " " Largely also : per- 
haps most largely."* 

That is the best this profound thinker can do from the 
premises laid down in his First Principles. Yet even 
with such premises, and while unconscious of the funda- 
mental factors, the great philosopher comes to optimistic 
conclusions in his The Data of Ethics *[ 

It is not intended here to show, as could easily be done, 
the defects of The Data of Ethics; I only desire to 
call attention to Mr. Spencer's mechanical system ; to 
his boldness of constructing his Synthetic Philosophy, 
while lacking the fundamentally efficient factors. Surely, 
great is the power of the constructive intellect, that can 
rear up such a gigantic structure from such meager data. 

As to Mr. Darwin's The Descent of Man, I would 
advise students to read the recent work of Alfred Russel 
Wallace, entitled Darwinism, more especially would I 
recommend a work, wherein the factors omitted in Dar- 
win and Spencer are supplied, viz.: Psychopathy, by 
the spirit of Dr. Benjamin Rush, through the mediumship 
of Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond. All that is true in Dar- 
win is therein recognized, and the missing factors are 
supplied. 

But it is time I should begin my task. A few words 
must prepare the reader's mind for the reception of what 
may seem to many strange, if not grotesque, views. 

" I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot 
bear them now." This was said to the disciples of Jesus 
by the Master himself ; the implication being that, though 
they were not prepared at that time for further revela- 
tions, they would at some future time be ready to under- 

* Principles of Biology, vol. ii., sec. 372. 
f See The Data of Ethics, chapter xvi. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 181 

stand and to accept all requisite additional teachings ; 
their minds would expand under the quickening influ- 
ences of inspiration, so that they could then bear still 
greater truths. " Howbeit when He, the Spirit of Truth, 
is come, He will guide you into all truth." * 

All mysteries are relative, not absolute. What we can- 
not comprehend in childhood, becomes plain to us in 
youth ; and what at an early age in the history of man- 
kind appears as a profound, impenetrable mystery, be- 
comes later soluble in the rays of advancing knowledge. 
Whatever concerns human development is knowable. 
Else "the world must seem to be stranded upon the shore 
of the sea of doubt and of degradation, from which there 
is no escape." f 

Problems hitherto considered as insoluble, easily solve 
themselves in the universal solvent of the spiritual phi- 
losophy. The problem of evil and human suffering ; the 
natural inequalities of human life ; the perplexing ques- 
tion of free will and predestination, and many more 
awful enigmas, all find their solution on the basis of 
absolute justice and infinite wisdom and love. 

But to win this great prize, to acquire this truth, we 
must be ready to entertain — new ideas. Strangers never 
seen before will meet us as we approach the sacred pre- 
cincts of the temple of Truth. Before w r e are permitted 
to enter, we must divest ourselves of all prejudices and 
hereditary or acquired preconceptions. These must be 
sacrificed upon the altar that stands outside, near the en- 
trance of the holy temple. Let us not recoil or shrink 
timidly like children from the strangers that will meet us. 

They are the guides that will lead us unto higher 
truth. 

* John xvi., 12-13. t The Soul, page 15. 



182 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

" Fear not," says the adage, " to entertain strangers ; 
for by thus entertaining strangers, men have unawares en- 
tertained angels." Nor expect answers at once easy and 
fully comprehensible; for the questions are hard, and 
have puzzled philosophers ever since thought began on 
earth. 

Remember that 

" Great truths are greatly won, not formed by chance, 
Nor wafted on the breath of summer dream ; 
But grasped in the great struggle of the soul, 
Hard buffeting with adverse wind and stream." 

We now approach Spiritual Evolution, or the modus oper- 
andi of the soul's eternal progression, in distinction from 
that evolution which Darwin and Spencer present, and 
which constitutes only a segment of the stupendous whole. 
The scope and sublime grandeur of man's spiritual evolu- 
tion is such, that the author of this work is not a little em- 
barrassed at attempting to give even a bare outline of it. 
But he must overcome his diffidence ; for it is necessary 
that the mind be directed to the method of the soul's evo- 
lution toward its glorious, ineffable destiny, during the 
aeons of endless time. My object indeed will already have 
been attained, if by the following very incomplete state- 
ments, the reader should be induced to seek better and 
fuller explanation in Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond's work: 
The Soul in Human Embodiments. 

The earth is the sphinx whose hard riddles man must 
solve. Our material planet is the great school of the 
soul's discipline and attainment. No one single life can 
gain all the discipline, or acquire all the varied experi- 
ences the planet affords, and man does not leave the great 
school before he has achieved all that can be achieved in 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 183 

it. We here come to diverse and usually perplexing 
questions which are only answerable through the spiritual 
philosophy herein recommended. It was stated in Chap- 
ter II. that a human life has two stages of growth, an 
earthly one and a spiritual one. " As the seed planted in 
the soil has a certain growth beneath the surface of the 
ground, a fuller growth above the surface and fruition 
there, so the spirit has the fruition of its (earthly) embodi- 
ment in the state which follows the separation from the 
body." In the spiritual stage of life we complete what 
we have begun on earth, but we cannot obtain what we 
have not acquired by our own efforts in earth-life. If we 
have failed to gain a victory over temptation, failed, that 
is, if we have not attempted at all to overcome a besetting 
sin, we cannot gain that victory in a realm where tempta- 
tion does not exist.* " Each one must experience every 
fault, failing and foible, until they are overcome." All 
must attain whatever is attainable, and all must 
graduate with the same honors ultimately. Now, many 
Spiritualists imagine that whatever we fail to acquire in 
one single, short, earthly career, we can obtain in the 
spiritual state following this career. It is assumed that 
we live only one short life on earth, then enter the spirit- 
ual state which lasts forever. It is further assumed that 
we can gain experience by proxy in the spirit-world, which 
is contradicted by all experience in the present life. " No 
human life can have experience for another." No one can 
acquire intellectual or artistic ability for another ; the son 
does not inherit the skill of the father ; all must buy their 
experience. Besides, if it be necessary for one human 
being to live threescore years and ten on earth, why should 
another be exempt from it altogether, by dying shortly 

* See The Soul, page 68. 



1 84 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

after birth, or living only a few years ? What, then, is the 
solution of this problem ? Simply this, that there are many 
embodiments, and that if we use our opportunities in one 
life to develop in the right direction, we shall in the next 
life have a higher start. This explains the inequalities of 
human life.* But immediately this great law of embodi- 
ments is stated, readers are perhaps shocked at the idea 
of living the hard, toiling, struggling and suffering earth- 
life over again. This is not so. No one lives his life 
over again a second time. It would be contrary to all 
that we know about nature. How, then, can this paradox 
be explained and resolved ? By the fact that in all em- 
bodiments man is the same individual, but not the same 
earthly personality. That the earthly personality is not the 
real, full, whole Ego, is, I think, observable in the phenom- 
ena of mesmerism. The mesmerized subject is easily 
transformed into another personality : that is to say, is led 
to imagine himself or herself to be another. The writer 
witnessed such a scene where a young man of about 
twenty years of age was made to believe himself a 
woman. And all the more wonderful was the change in 
the youth's consciousness in considering that a few 
seconds during which the mesmeric passes were made, 
sufficed to effect such a startling transformation. 

" It takes some mental effort," says Mr. Sinnett, 
" to realize the difference between personality and individ- 
uality, but the craving for the full recollection always of 
those transitory circumstances of our present physical life 
which make up the personality, is manifestly, no more 
than a passing weakness of the flesh.t Contemplate the 
analogous changes in the consciousness of our present 
life. The child loses its personality in the youth, and the 

* See further on, page 260, etc. f Esoteric Buddhism, page 293. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 185 

immature self-conciousness of the reckless youth is merged 
into the higher self-consciousness of the ripe and experi- 
enced man of fifty. 

" The spirit puts forth man for moral achievement, and 
it is in this wise that man enriches the spirit ; per contra, 
when the man enters the spirit (by death) he realizes him- 
self more or less under another aspect or form of con- 
sciousness, which, however, has always co-existed with 
him — and thus, step by step, he proceeds to make the 
acquaintance of his larger spiritual self, by entering more 
fully into the self-existent consciousness of his spirit. 
Life and death are thus made complimentary modes of 
exchange. The human personality is a certain amount of 
expression by soul (through spirit) in matter, which takes 
in man the form of self-consciousness ; and, as the same 
thing is never twice expressed, or rather, as no two ex- 
pressions can ever be just alike, — it follows that, humanly 
speaking, no life can live itself over again." # 

' ' The spirit of each embodiment is expressed as long 
in mortal or spiritual life as there is any call or demand 
for it . . . , . . People say : I would not like to go into 
spirit life and not find my friends. If they are your friends 
you will find them, if they are not, you would not wish to. 
All real ties are found to last in spiritual existence, and 
form a portion of the soul's possessions. The larger 
sphere includes the smaller one. It does not detract from 
the relation of the moon to the earth because both revolve 
around the sun. Nor does it render the relation of the 
planets in the solar system any less important, because 
the entire system, including the sun, revolves around a 
more distant central sun. Children leave their parental 

* From a masterly essay contributed by Frederick F. Cook to 
the Progressive Thinker of June 6th, 1891. 



1 86 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

homes to form other ties of marriage and parentage, but 

are none the less children The mother who has 

passed to the spiritual life, whose child is left upon the 
earth, does not change her natural or spiritual relation- 
ship. She fills her function toward that child. When 
there is an added expression upon the earth, in another 
embodiment, it is after all possible duties have bee7i fulfilled 
toward the child ; and that relation of mother and child, 
if it be real, is included as a portion of the soul's treas- 
ures." * 

The graduates from our planet, those that have gained 
all that the earth can give, have overcome one world. 
They are angels. They now minister to others that are 
toiling upward in their evolution. Ministering angels 
these are. As long a period as occupied their own past 
evolution, they remain as angels of the earth in the spir- 
itual earth-sphere. As in the Darwinian system of de- 
velopment we count the years by the millions, during 
which our globe gradually cooled, and prepared for or- 
ganic life, vegetable, animal and human, so we must be 
prepared to contemplate for spiritual development yet 
greater periods, greater, in the proportion in which moral 
or spiritual growth is slower than physical and intellect- 
ual growth. " If any one has endeavored to measure the 
periods or cycles of time in connection with earthly and 
planetary expression, it would almost be fruitless ; al- 
though it is possible to state in numbers the years included 
in the vast cycles that intervene between the commence- 
ment and close of expression on a planet, also the cycles 
that intervene between the planetary expressions, when 
the soul is in a state of being instead of existence, also 
the aeons that intervene between expressions in systems 
*The Soul, page 66. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 187 

of planets ; but those figures would convey no idea that 
the human mind could grasp, so vast would be the num- 
ber." * 

And now a few remarks concerning other planets. " In 
my Father's house are many mansions." We are not to 
suppose that our planet is the only planet inhabited by 
human beings. It is simply one belonging to a solar sys- 
tem, and the solar systems are innumerable. There are 
in our solar system older planets than ours, which are 
higher in the scale of spiritual development, having be- 
gun their career earlier. In them human beings exist 
who are as superior to us, as we are superior to the savage 
races on our globe. The angel of the earth, in approach- 
ing the next higher planet for embodiment, finds himself 
at the foot of the ladder there. 

" The planet Mars, being next the earth in the as- 
tronomical order of your solar system, has no lower 
expression of life than your highest and most spiritual 
expression here. So, any embodiment upon the planet 
Mars would represent a higher state of expression than 
the highest embodiment upon the planet Earth ; would be 
like your angels. While the lowest expressions of souls 
on the planet Jupiter are higher than the highest on the 
planet Mars. If some of the inhabitants of the planet 
Mars were presented to you, were it possible for you to 
perceive them with your earthly vision or spiritual per- 
ception, you would consider that they belong to a race of 
angels ; yet these would be but the human beings of Mars ; 
they would seem to you as gods. Such is the next step 
of expression To typify the states of plane- 
tary life — what they are — we will say : where you crawl, 
they walk ; where you walk they may fly ; where you 

*The Soul, page 115. 



1 88 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

dream, they fulfill." * The reader will find in the 
source from which I draw this information a more com- 
plete description. As to the authenticity of these state- 
ments, I quote again : " Spirits can only give you this 
knowledge from beyond the orbit of the earth through the 
angels of earth, because the angelic states alone perceive 
and impart this knowledge, unless the planet be beneath 
the earth; if it is, then spirits can minister to that planet 
under guidance, but if above the earth, the spirit can only 
be shown those states and degrees by the angels of your 
planet." t 

Why do we not remember previous lives ? It is true, 
as a general rule, mortals and spirits have hardly what is 
called a remembrance of former existence. But many 
have more or less vague reminiscences. Few, I believe, 
are the persons who, like Pythagoras, distinctly recollect 
their former lives. It seems that for wise purposes there 
should be forgetfulness, purposes, however, that are by 
no means inscrutable. " Reminiscences of previous em- 
bodiments do not exist in ordinary life on earth, nor in 
the spirit state following the ordinary life ; therefore it is 
not strange that mortals do not receive these teachings 
from spirits usually ; for unless the earthly embodiment 
is ready to receive them, the spirit state following the 
embodiment will not reveal them. It is with spirits 
as with mortals : very few mortals know ; but there 
are in each individual, in mortal and in spirit life, if 
the indications were carefully noted, certain flashes of 
reminiscence : we mean in such lives as have reached 
any degree of thought or intuition upon these or kindred 
themes." t 

* The Soul, page 90 et seq. Ibid., page 91. 

% Ibid., page 67. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 189 

I think in the following illustration given by the guides 
of the medium, through whom these revelations are made, 
a satisfactory explanation is given : " We may illustrate 
this by citing the one who is ascending a mountain : while 
he is in the valley, or even during the ascent, when he is 
struggling, entangled in the woods and briers amid rocks, 
or descending into valleys between the hills, he cannot 
see the path by which he has ascended, nor yet the way 
before him, but when he comes to one height he can look 
back along the mountain and see the devious path by 
which he has ascended. He also has a glimpse of the 
way before him, of the higher height to be attained, and 
once more he plunges into the valley, or ravine, or tangled 
maze, to ascend. So at a certain height, or a certain 
degree of unfoldment in human existence, glimmerings of 
reminiscence begin; the consciousness of having lived 
before, of having suffered with the sufferer, of having 
traveled along the shaded human ways." 

Mr. Sinnett says beautifully : " The exquisite symmetry 
of the whole system is in no way impaired by that feature 
which seems obnoxious to criticism at the first glance — 
the successive baths of oblivion, through which the re- 
incarnating spirit has to pass. On the contrary, that ob- 
livion itself is in truth the only condition on which objec- 
tive life could fairly be started afresh. Few earth-lives 
are entirely free from shadows, the recollection of which 
would darken a renewed lease of life for the former per- 
sonality. And if it is alleged that the forgetfulness in 
each life of the last involves waste of experience and effort 
and intellectual acquirements, painfully or laboriously ob- 
tained, that objection can only be raised in forgetfulness 
of the Devachanic spiritual life, in which, far from being 
wasted, such efforts and acquirements are the seeds from 



190 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

which the whole magnificent harvest of spiritual results 
will be raised." * 

The word Re-incarnation is generally employed for the 
Successive Embodime?its ; but the latter term is preferable 
in view of the rationale of the matter. 

In conclusion let it be noted that the progressive evo- 
lution of man is a spiral ascent, " extending in new lines 
as one advances. In the steps of expression, although 
there is a continual ascent, there are also, seemingly, de- 
clensions, as between mountains there are depressions ; 
but the valleys there are higher than the preceding mount- 
ain-tops." f 

Besides the great text-book of Mrs. Richmond, the stu- 
dent may consult the interesting and entertaining work of 
E. D. Walker, entitled Re-incarnation, which contains a 
bibliography of the subject. In addition to the author's 
dissertation, the book presents a compilation of ancient 
and modern views of re-incarnation in prose and poetry, 
the perusal of which may be more effective in convincing 
readers that we have here a great and fundamental truth, 
than the imperfect abstract here presented. (See con- 
cluding chapter of this work). 

* Esoteric Buddhism, by A. P. Sinnett, page 276. 
t The Soul, page 46. 



PART THIRD. 

THE CONSEQUENCES. 



CHAPTER XXIII. 

THE BASIS OF ETHICS. 

It must be left to the thoughtful reader to draw for him- 
self all the consequences of the foregoing revelations. 
Some of the main ones will be enumerated and briefly dis- 
cussed. 

True, absolute morality is imperatively enjoined only by 
the system here expounded. By absolute morality I, of 
course, mean doing right at any cost and under all cir- 
cumstances, regardless of immediate unpleasant conse- 
quences, regardless of lower self-interests, or adverse 
social results. In short, I mean the realization of the 
highest spiritual Ideal in conduct, no matter how much 
suffering may be involved to our lower self, or how it may 
injure our secular interests; uncompromising, absolute 
honesty in business ; purity in thought and feeling, and 
universal philanthropy, that knows no barriers whatever, 
either national, or religious, political or social; a philan- 
thropy that is based upon the recognition of the Father- 
hood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. 

This morality is imperatively enjoined by the laws of 

191 



192 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

our being, the laws of human nature, of human develop- 
ment. To abstain from evil conduct is to obey the laws 
of our nature and secure spiritual health and moral growth ; 
to do wrong either to self or to others, is to inflict self- 
injury, impair the health of our soul, disfigure or deform 
the spirit, which deformity becomes publicly manifested 
after death — after unmasking — and entails keen suffering 
in the hereafter. " It is well known," writes Judge Ed- 
monds, " to all observers, and students of medicine, that 
the soul is capable of experiencing more intense suffering 
than the body. Despair, remorse, and a desire for re- 
venge, cause greater torment than pain inflicted upon the 
body, so that individuals resort to suicide and all species 
of bodily torment to decrease the anguish of the soul. 

Therefore, as the spirit becomes many more times sus- 
ceptible to ecstatic pain or pleasure, when released from 
the body, the clairvoyant pictures of Heaven and Hell, 
as endured by the soul, are emblematic of states, and not 
veritable places ; as, for instance, the sea of ice de- 
scribed by Dante, the Houri's heaven of the Moham- 
medan, or the burning lake of fire of the Christian." * 

On the other hand, obedience to the laws of our nature 
insures our well-being, our moral health, our spiritual 
soundness, and furthers our progress. " According to the 
current view," says L. B. Hellenbach, " the labors of one 
generation always benefit the succeeding generation. 
Now, even if in some remote future the golden age would 
ultimately be arrived at, only those latest generations 
would reap the harvest ; all the countless preceding gen- 
erations would have toiled and suffered without compen- 
sation, and when finally the last races of men would have 
died out, the whole stupendous process would appear as a 
*The Next World, by Mrs. S. G. Horn, page 239. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 193 

useless, though cruel enough, expenditure of energy. 
Here, however, in the new view, man is his own heir ; the 
Individual, the real Ego, is heir to all attainments of the 
Person ; whatever is acquired in intellectual and moral 
pursuits in the various earthly lives, remains as one's 
achievement, as character. The law of the Conservation 
of Force is seen, therefore, to reign in the realm of mind, 
as well as in the physical world.* 

Thus, man reaps the reward for obedience to the spirit- 
ual laws of his being, just as he reaps the reward for 
obedience to the objective, physical laws of external nat- 
ure ; and any transgression of spiritual law is detrimen- 
tal to his spiritual nature, just as the violation of physical 
law brings its penalty, or as transgression of the sanitary 
laws causes impaired health. Du Prel quotes the dictum 
that " the real test of any philosophical system is, in the 
last resort, the moral proposition flowing from it. The 
crucial test of any view of the world is ethics ; because 
what is true, is inseparable from what is good : consen- 
sus boni et veri ; and what is false is inseparable from 
evil : consensus mali et falsi. Man in this system is the 
product of his own development ; he builds his own char- 
acter, his fate is in his own hands." f 

Thus, man must work out his own salvation ; he is the 
architect of his own happiness ; creates his own heaven 
or hell. As stated in the chapters on Retribution and 
Reformation, no one can, by any conceivable act of piety, 
transfer the penalty for wrong-doing to another ; the 
effect follows the cause as inevitably as in natural law. 
Sin is moral disease, and must be treated as rationally as 
bodily disease. Though the real teachings of Jesus are 

* Der Individualisimus, by L. B. Hellenbach. Section xi. 

* Philosophie Der Mystik, page 530-537. 

*3 



i 9 4 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

superior to the teachings of the Old Testament, the im- 
puted teachings concerning original sin and vicarious 
atonement, are far inferior to the ethical doctrines of the 
Hebrews. The Old Testament is said to be rigidly just 
and stern. " An eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth." 
But the theological doctrine that teaches that we can es- 
cape from the evil consequences of our sins of commis- 
sion, or omission, by recognizing another as having un- 
dertaken to bear the penalty for us, is certainly worse 
than the principle of inflexible justice. Boys and girls 
are gravely taught in orthodox Christian Sunday-schools 
that they can wash away their sins in the blood of Jesus. 
Some one has drawn a contrast between a murderer who 
gets converted and becomes a Christian a few weeks or 
a few days before his execution, and consequently is 
"saved" ; he goes to Heaven ; and his victim, the mur- 
dered man, who has not "taken religion," who is not a 
Christian, is consigned to Hell. What a flagrant incon- 
gruity ! As a matter of fact, there are shocking crimes 
committed in Christian countries in these latter days of 
civilization and material progress, and the depravity and 
insolence of some of our boys in the streets, seems to 
imply that there must be a serious defect in the ethical 
teachings of the churches. Unlike modern iconoclasts, 
the author dislikes to animadvert on the current creeds. 
Nor would he mention this fact, if it were not for the im- 
portant consideration that American children and youths 
generally depend upon the churches for moral education. 
No morality is taught in our public schools as a branch 
of education. Why? Because there is no other basis for 
morality recognized, than the theological basis of the 
churches. 

On the other hand, without a belief in immortality, the 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 195 

materialist or agnostic will never be able to find a basis 
for absolute ethics. Even a philosophical genius of the 
type of Herbert Spencer does not succeed in such an en- 
terprise, as is obvious in his Data of Ethics. As a 
mere social problem, there can, of course, be formulated 
an ethical system of relative morality. For, even if this 
earthly life be all, and there were no life beyond the 
grave, it would still be necessary to formulate a system of 
morality ; to enjoin and to enforce righteous conduct 
among men, else social life would be impossible, and the 
manifold processes of industry, commerce, etc., could not 
be properly carried on. This is Mr. Spencer's Relative 
Ethics. 

Again, there are various standards of human conduct, 
relatively more or less praiseworthy. To be honest, for 
instance, because honesty is the best policy, is mere self- 
ish calculation, not genuine honesty. Single individual 
examples of men in or out of the church, who are inher- 
ently of noble character, cannot be adduced to disprove 
the thesis here maintained. The problem is to find 
a basis for absolute ethics of universal authority ; a basis 
as imperative as that of the physical laws of the universe ; 
and this basis is only found in the sovereign dicta of the 
spiritual philosophy. 

See Chapter XXV., for the practical application of 
these principles, and the shortcomings of all other stand- 
ards. 



196 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



CHAPTER XXIV. 



OPTIMISM. 



The Spiritual Philosophy solves the riddle of human life. 
" A riddle is solved when the answer explains all that 
is proposed for conjecture. A problem in arithmetic is 
solved when the proof reveals the correctness of the sum." 
By the solution of the problems of human existence is, 
of course, meant the main riddle of the destiny of man, 
and the moral tendency of the universe. And now we 
see the reason why great scientific and philosophical 
thinkers either declared these problems insoluble, or fell 
into pessimism. They merely judged from data appertain- 
ing to earth-life, which is only an infinitesimal part of an 
infinite whole. " The doctrine that correlatives imply one 
another," says Herbert Spencer, " has for one of its com- 
mon examples the necessary connection between the con- 
ceptions of whole and part. Beyond the primary truth 
that no idea of a whole can be framed without a nascent 
idea of parts constituting it, and that no idea of a part 
can be framed without a nascent idea of some whole to 
which it belongs, there is the secondary truth that there 
can be no correct idea of a part without a correct idea of 
the correlative whole. If the part is conceived without 
any reference to the whole, it becomes itself a whole — an 
independent entity ; and its relations to existence in gen- 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 197 

eral are misapprehended. By a savage, who has never 
seen a vehicle, no idea can be formed of the use and 
action of a wheel. Even a mechanician, if he has never 
looked into a piano, will, if shown a damper, be unable to 
conceive its function or relative value. The moon's move- 
ments cannot be fully interpreted without taking into 
account the movements of the solar system at large." * 
No sane man would undertake to write the biography of 
a Bismarck, if he had only seen him as a schoolboy and 
never heard anything about him since. Seeing or read- 
ing merely one or a few scenes in the first act of a great 
drama, the denouement of which occurs in the latter 
part of the fifth act, would not enable one to under- 
stand the plot or to judge of the merits of the whole com- 
position. 

John Stuart Mill judges nature and the Deity in the 
fallacious manner here exemplified. His conclusion is 
that "the scheme of nature regarded in its whole extent, 
cannot have had for its sole or even principal object, the 
good of human or other sentient beings." f Mr. Mill 
fails to apprehend correctly the relation between man and 
his environment, because he sins against the logical canon 
laid down in his own logic, and expressed thus by Mr. 
Spencer : " Still more when part and whole, instead of 
being statically related, only, are dynamically related, 
must there be a general understanding of the whole before 
the part can be understood." % Tacitly assuming an an- 
thropomorphic Deity, he comes to the conclusion that 
God is either limited in power, is not omnipotent, or has 
not createdthe universe exclusively from benevolent pur- 

* The Data of Ethics, page 3. 

t Three Essays on Religion, page 65. 

% The Data of Ethics, page 4. 



198 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

poses. Writing these essays on " Nature," and " Theism," 
between the years 1850 and 1858, Mr. Mill seems to have 
taken no account of " Evolution," which, to my best 
knowledge, had then already been sketched out by Mr. 
Spencer. From the old standpoint of the " Carpenter 
theory of Creation," the great logician could come to no 
other conclusions. * 

Professor Huxley, an exponent of the evolution theory, 
but an agnostic as to a future life beyond the grave, can- 
not, of course, grasp the true attitude of nature toward 
man, though, like even Mill himself, he perceives clearly 
enough that man's destination cannot be to imitate nature, 
i.e., the spontaneous processes of material forces ; that, on 
the contrary, human 7iature as it ought to be is different in 
kind from physical nature ; is alone moral, while nature 
is neither moral nor immoral, but indifferent or unmoral. 
Professor Huxley says : " The vast and varied procession 
of events which we call nature affords a sublime spectacle 
of an inexhaustible wealth of attractive problems to the 
speculative observer. If we confine our attention to that 
aspect which engages the attention of the intellect, nature 
appears a beautiful and harmonious whole, the incarna- 
tion of a faultless logical process, from certain premises in 
the past to an inevitable conclusion in the future. But if 
she be regarded from a less elevated, but more human, 
point of view ; if our moral sympathies are allowed to in- 
fluence our judgment, and we permit ourselves to criti- 
cise our great mother as we criticise one another ; then 
our verdict, at least so far as sentient nature is con- 
cerned, can hardly be so favorable If we desire to 

represent the cause of nature in terms of human thought 
and assume that it was intended to be that which it is, we 

* Three Essays on Religion, page 191-195. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



99 



must say that its governing principle is intellectual and 
not moral." * 

In John W. Draper's The Intellectual Developme?it of 
Europe, vol. n., page 360, it is plainly asserted that: 
" The aim of nature is not at moral, but intellectual 
development." 

Mr. Frederic Harrison, the English exponent of M. 
Comte's Positivism, is almost sure that man has no per- 
sonal conscious life after death. " We have not," he says, 
" the slightest reason to suppose that the consciousness of 
the organism continues. " But to avoid the consequences 
of such a standpoint, Mr. Harrison recommends the 
adoption of a pseudo-belief in immortality; namely, "the 
belief that the posthumous effects of our activities and 
conduct continue after our death to benefit the race." t 
There can still be religion, cries Mr. Harrison : " Let us 
worship humanity; all the great men that ever lived!" 
Mr. Herbert Spencer utterly demolishes this idol set up 
by Positivism, in showing the unworthy motives of a good 
many "great men," and in pointing out that the post- 
humous effects of men's conduct include likewise the evil 
acts committed ; so that Mr. Harrison's " Religion of 
Humanity," is, at least, a questionable substitute for the 
current religions of the day. " Though the outcome," 
writes Mr. Spencer, " of those struggles for supremacy in 
which, during European history, so many millions have 
been sacrificed, has been the formation of great nations 
fitted for the highest types of structure ; yet when, here- 
after, opinion is no longer swayed by public-school ethics, 
it will be seen that the men who effected these unions, did 

* The Struggle for Existence. A Programme. In the Nine- 
teenth Century for Feburary, 1888. 

f A Modern Symposium. The Soul and Future Life, page 47. 



200 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

so from desires which should class them with criminals 
rather than with the benefactors of mankind." * 

That modern unbelief had come to a crisis, had reached 
an extreme, is not only manifest in the materialistic or 
agnostic school of thought, but, strange to say, even in 
modern systems of decidedly spiritualistic tendencies there 
is no ray of hope for man. On the contrary, the conclu- 
sion is that this world is the worst conceivable. I refer to 
the systems of Schopenhauer and Hartmann and their 
followers. The outcome of these systems is pessimism ; 
pessimism as a world-theory. The paradox is that this 
school of thought is utterly antagonistic toward scientific , 
materialism. Mind originated the universe ; not such 
mind as we know in man, but omniscient spirit, called by 
Schopenhauer Will, and by Hartmann The Unconscious, 
or Super-conscious. Individuality is only possible in sen- 
tient creatures on earth, and without a material organism 
there cannot be individuality. Death destroys both ap- 
parently. 

" Along with the idea of a future retribution, the idea 
of individual immortality has become obsolete. Like the 
waxen wings of Icarus, man's aerial hopes are melting in 
the sunbeams of scientific research." f 

According to Schopenhauer, " pain greatly predominates 

in life He sees no remedy for this deplorable state 

of things, but in abnegating the activities of existence, not 
by self-destruction, but by stilling the will, crucifying all 
desire, and crushing out all interest in life." % Hartmann, 
while he rejects Leibnitz's views of the privative character 

* Retrogressive Religion, by Herbert Spencer. Nineteenth Cen- 
tury, June, 1884. 

t Das Sittliche Berrusstsein, von E. von Hartmann, page 41, Zweite 
Auflage. J Conflicts in Nature and Life, p. 22. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 201 

of evil and its ultimate extinction in a millennial future, 
accepts his theory of " the best possible world." The evil 
so far transcends the good, that it is a very bad world, but 
it is, nevertheless, the best possible. It is the best, be- 
cause it is the production of the Unconscious, All-one, 
which never errs (unless it possibly did so when by a 
" blind impulse of the will," it brought this bad world into 
existence). Still, it is the best possible, because it is 
capable of being eventually annihilated." * 

Pessimism, as a system, has largely permeated modern 
thought. " Is life worth living? " is considered a proper 
subject for debate and controversy. The Spectator (Eng- 
land) called attention, a few years ago, to The Melancholy 
of the Educated. Even the sacred precincts of poetry 
are invaded by pessimism ; an anomaly indeed, but grow- 
ing out naturally of modern morbid thought concerning 
man's place in nature : 

" Are God and Nature then at strife 
That Nature lends such evil dreams ? 

O life as futile then, as frail ! 
O for the voice to soothe and bless ! 
What hope of answer or redress 
Behind the veil, behind the veil ? " 

Has not the time come in the history of our planet for 
the solution of the riddle of the sphinx ? The very fact 
that men, no more satisfied with childish explanations and 
dogmatic assertions of theology, ask those questions, 
proves that they are ripe for receiving the answer. 

* Conflicts in Nature and Life, page 23. See chaps. 12-14, Phil- 
osophic des Unbewussten, Neunte Auflage. 



202 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

And this is my justification, if justification be demanded 
by spirits in and out of the flesh, for promulgating the 
great truth of successive embodiments, as taught in Mrs. 
Richmond's The Soul, and as outlined in Chapter XXII., 
and in the concluding chapter of this work. For, surely, 
the disclosure can no more be considered premature. 
The plea that the public are not yet ripe to receive such 
knowledge, cannot be fully sustained in view of the prev- 
alence of skepticism and agnosticism among the intelli- 
gent classes of our time ; though it is true that such 
revealments are apt to be met with repugnance, opposi- 
tion and even scorn and ridicule. He who advocates an 
unpopular cause must be willing to incur the world's dis- 
pleasure. As it was said of old : " If ye were of the 
world, the world would love its own ; but because ye are 
not of the world, therefore the world hateth you. Re- 
member the word that I said unto you, The servant is not 
greater than his lord. If they have persecuted Me, they 
will also persecute you ; if they kept My word, they will 
keep yours also." # 

It will be gathered from what has been said in preced- 
ing chapters that Nature is the sphinx whose riddles man 
must guess ; it is a hard school of discipline, involving 
obstacles and difficulties, the temptations of the flesh and 
the allurements of sense. Spirit is incarnated in matter 
in order to overcome it. All souls must begin low down 
at the foot of the ladder. The boy does not begin with 
algebra, he must first master the lower branches of arith- 
metic. At first, in the lower stages of spiritual evolution, 
man is controlled by the forces of nature, is at the mercy 
of circumstances, as is often seen even in the gait and 
walk and posture of the undeveloped. As man advances, 
* John xv. 19-20. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 203 

he in turn controls nature's forces, gradually subduing 
them to his service, making them subservient to his sway 
and behest. First a servant, he afterwards becomes a 
master. Speaking of earthquakes, Humboldt remarks : 
" The day will come when man, by the aid of science, will, 
through premonitory symptoms foresee the coming events, 
even as the wise physician can discern the time when his 
patient's soul will leave its body. Nature, misunderstood, 
is a fearful mystery ; but understood, she is a simple and 
beautiful piece of mechanism. * The solution of the 
problem of evil is fully contained in the vicissitudes of 
man's spiritual evolution. Speaking of the formation of 
the body by the spirit, W. J. Colville says : " If the 
question arises, ' Why then do we not all have the bodies 
we would like ? ' we must bear in mind that we cannot al- 
ways externalize our thought perfectly, even in the making 
of a dress or coat. We have not as yet perfect power over 
material, even with the best patterns before us. The ideal 
always antedates the actual ; a perfect expression of the 
ideal is reserved for a condition in this world, or some 
other, where we have gained complete ascendency over 
all material ; then we shall be clothed upon with bodies 
of glorious spiritual form." 

Even Mr. Spencer, from the stand-point of his defective 
system, says : " Slowly, but surely, evolution brings about 
an increasing amount of happiness : All evils being but 
incidental." f 

Suffering is the labor-pain of progressive evolution. 
Evil is not an entity ; is not something positive, enduring, 
but is destined to be utterly expunged. 

" How did evil originate ? was the question recently 
asked. Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond answered it thus : " It 
* Strange Visitors, page 215. t Biology, vol. i., page 354. 



204 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

did not originate. The necessity of naming the night 
darkness, and the day light, is a necessity that is relative, 
and does not pertain to the absolute state at all. All 
matter and whatever pertains to matter is relative ; the 
necessity of naming something as black and something as 
white is the result of human conditions and material en- 
vironments ; yet we are perfectly well aware that there is 
no absolute darkness, and we are perfectly well aware that 
no human vision has seen the absolute light. We know that 
the blackest substance which human discovery has per- 
ceived is coal-tar ; but when tested and divided, and 
when certain chemical processes are applied to it, it 
reveals the most brilliant of all dyes and colors with 
which human vision is familiar. That, in other words, 
blackness and brightness, the vibrations of light and shade, 
are but relative terms. For God there is the absolute, 
for man there is the relative. Evil is the absence of 
manifest good ; the negation, the night ; the winter ; 
the coal-tar of earthly existence, out of which the 
Divine Alchemist brings the aniline dyes of spiritual 
perfection." 

If, then, the hardest of all problems is soluble in the 
light of this system, we need not remain any longer in 
perplexity respecting lesser problems, and the student will 
find no difficulty in finding the solution of the problem of 
Free Will, in what has been said in regard to man's 
autonomy, to the soul's sovereignty under God, presiding 
over its own destiny. As to the inequalities in human 
life, these must necessarily exist, if spiritual evolution be 
the Divine dispensation. Some souls are as yet at the 
very foot of the mountain, like some of the savage races ; 
others are in the physical stage of development ; still 
others are in the intellectual, and others in the spiritual 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 205 

stage.* Let all the pupils of the schools and colleges 
and universities assemble in one huge amphitheatre, from 
the boy or girl in the primary classes, to the youth and 
maiden of Harvard and Yale, and there will be found 
variety and difference enough, to serve as an illustration ;• 
with that important additional consideration ; that moral 
or spiritual attainments are to be taken into account, 
besides the mere intellectual or artistic acquirements. From 
the assumption that effect follows the cause, that men ever 
reap what they have sown, and from the premises laid 
down in the chapters on Retribution and Reformation, it 
follows inevitably that even this present earthly life must 
be to some a heaven, to some a hell, and to most, perhaps, 
a purgatory, according to their conduct in a previous 
existence and to the use they have made of their opportu- 
nities therein. Yet, how infinite the hope for all, that 
they, sooner or later will reach a beatific state of moral 
grandeur ! 

Thus, in a profounder sense than imagined by the 
current theology, it is true that 

" Whatever is, is right." 

" That nothing walks with aimless feet ; 
That no one life shall be destroyed 
Or cast as rubbish to the void, 
When God hath made the pile complete." 

And thus we can exclaim, with the voice of inspiration : 

"They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. 

He goeth forth weeping as he goeth, bearing the handful of 

seed ; 
He shall surely come with rejoicing, bearing his sheaves." t 

* See Mrs. Richmond's The Soul, page 34, et seq. 
t Psalm cxxvi., 5-6. 



206 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

And with the voice of the inspired apostle in the New 
Testament : 

" For I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not 
. worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."* 

* Romans viii., 18. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 207 



CHAPTER XXV. 

SOCIAL PROBLEMS : THE LABOR QUESTION. 

Not being versed in the technicalities of Political 
Economy, the author belongs to that large majority who 
recognize with profound gratitude the undying merit of 
Mr. Edward Bellamy, in having made easy to popular 
comprehension the propositions of that science, at least as 
far as the practical questions of industry are concerned. 

The subject is here contemplated from the moral stand- 
point ; that is to say, from the standpoint of spiritual 
philosophy. 

Very likely the moral aspect is the great arbiter in this 
momentous issue. As the race advances, it deviates 
more and more from the animal " Struggle for Existence," 
and inclines toward its opposite — Co-operation. There is 
strength and power in unity, while there is waste and fric- 
tion in competition. This is a platitude, it is true, in the 
sense of being a well-known truth. But the question is 
not, Is this truth old ? the question is, Is it practiced ? 
And practiced it is not in the industrial world, except in col- 
lective monopolies, which indicates the tendency, says Mr. 
Bellamy, toward the establishment of the One Great Mo- 
nopoly of universal co-operation. The great capitalists and 
syndicates may sneer at such a proposition, just as the 
great barons and noblemen sneered at democratic propo- 
sitions in feudal times. But if there is a spiritual evolu- 



208 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

tion as well as a physical, there is a " Struggle for Exist- 
ence " in the moral realm, as there is in the material, and 
what is good, will prevail ultimately over what is evil, in 
conformity with the great law of the Survival of the Fittest. 
Who are the fittest in the moral realm ? Not those who 
possess brute force ; not the princes of Mammon ; not 
those who are wily, cunning, shrewd, crafty, selfish ; but 
those who excel in the fruit of the spirit, in " love, 
kindness, goodness," etc.* Yea, as the inspired Seers 
of the Old Testament say : " The meek shall inherit 
the earth." As mankind progress in spiritual develop- 
ment, the works of the flesh, " strife, jealousies, wraths, 
factions, divisions," will be left behind ; only the fruit 
of the spirit will survive. What is there to sneer at in 
Mr. Bellamy's ideal ? Thus did the political leaders in 
Israel of old, when Seers held up before them a mirror for 
self-inspection, calling them to righteousness ; but they 
found out, as did the aristocratic lords of feudal times, 
that the Seers w r ere right after all when they complained 
that, " Thy princes are companions of thieves : every one 
loveth gifts and followeth after rewards : they judge not 
the fatherless, neither doth the cause of the widow come 
unto them.f 

The princes of Mammon support the church, where 
they insure the salvation of their souls by contributing 
to the poor-fund. They believe in charity, not in jus- 
tice ; they believe in the sacrament of the sanctuary, 
not in visiting the wretched hovels of the poor, or in 
devising means for improving their condition ; they pat- 
ronize the minister ; they love the front seats in the syna- 
gogue, they offer oblations. The officiating priest or 
minister rarely has the courage to address them in the 
* Galatians v. t Isaiah i. 23. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



209 



words of the prophet of old, saying : " To what purpose 
is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me ? Bring no 
more vain oblations ; incense is an abomination unto me. 
Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul 
hateth. And when ye spread forth your hands, I will 
hide mine eyes from you ; yea, when ye make many 
prayers, I will not hear : your hands are full of blood. 
Wash ye, make you clean ; put away the evil of your 
doings. Learn to do well ; seek judgment, relieve 
the oppressed." * Your sneering at the efforts of the toil- 
ing millions to achieve by organization and unions what 
as individuals, they can never hope to achieve, is as inef- 
fectual as the barking of a small dog at a railway train. 
True, when the train just begins slowly to start, the dog 
does seem to scare the locomotive a little ; but after a 
awhile the wheels of progress will leave the barking dog 
far behind. No doubt, labor-unions make mistakes ; and 
are in minor things unfair. To err is human. They may 
not always employ just means for the ends they have in 
view. But though the end does not sanctify the means, 
this end is nothing less than the realization of the ideal 
of the fraternity of man and the inauguration of the King- 
dom of God on earth. " Whom the gods wish to destroy, 
they first make blind ; " blind to their own true interests 
as well as to others ! Else they would perceive that the 
undue, selfish accumulation of wealth is an insane mania, 
which dwarfs and deforms the spirit. They would per- 
ceive that such a tremendous uprising on the part of the 
toiling masses, all over the civilized world, indicates that 
the time is at hand in the world's history, when " a form 
of society which is founded on the pseudo self-interest of 
selfishness, appealing solely to the anti-social and brutal 

* Isaiah i. 11 -17. 
14 



210 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

side of human nature, shall be replaced by institutions 
based on the true self-interest of a rational unselfishness 
appealing to the social and generous instincts of men." * 

How can an organism be healthy, if one organ receive 
an enormous quantity of blood and another organ a too 
scanty supply ? Congestion is impeded circulation. The 
social organism is in an unhealthy condition, in a mor- 
bid state ; hence the eruptions on its surface ; hence the 
poverty and crime, pauperism and degradation. 

In ancient times parents in the east sacrificed their 
children to Molech, a god represented by an image of 
brass, " hollow within, his face like a calf, and his arms 
stretched forth like a man who opens his hands to receive 
something. And they kindled it with fire, and the priest 
took the babe and put it into the hands of Molech, and 
the babe gave up the ghost." f These things were done of 
old in the Valley of Hinnom. To-day parents are com- 
pelled by poverty to sacrifice the health, growth and edu- 
cation of their children to the god Mammon. The 
fiery image of Molech was recently brought to the writer's 
mind as he stood in the sight of one of the fiery furnaces 
in a glass factory in one of the towns of Beaver County, 
near Pittsburgh, Pa., where he saw boys, mere children, 
working and inhaling the fiery vapor through glass blow- 
ing. Seventy-five boys are employed in this factory. The 
act approved by the Governor of Pennsylvania May 20, 
1886, forbidding children under twelve years of age to be 
employed, is a dead letter. " How old are you ? " I 
asked a little fellow. " Nine years," was the reply. In 
another glass-house in the same town, from 400 to 500 
boys are employed, boys who ought to attend school. 1 

* Looking Backward, by Edward Bellamy, page 276. 
t Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, Vol. III., page 1992. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 2 1 1 

was told that the intense heat creates thirst for — Kquor, 
and, as a matter of fact, the taste of strong drink is not 
unknown to these youthful toilers in the glass factories of 
that region. Thus are these unfortunate children not only 
deprived of elementary education, but are exposed to 
demoralizing influences. In those mammoth stores in our 
big cities, such, for instance, as " The Fair " in Chicago, 
where all imaginable merchandise is sold, hosts of little 
girls are employed. The pittance these " cash girls " 
earn is at the fearful sacrifice of deprived school-educa- 
tion. To pay the rent for their wretched tenement houses 
and eke out a scanty subsistence, parents are thus con- 
strained to sin against their own children. 

It is strange how the wealthy can enjoy their refine- 
ments and luxuries while aware of the poverty, the un- 
healthy occupations and wretched, unwholesome dwell- 
ings of their fellow-men ; poverty that induces parents 
to sacrifice their children to the god Mammon ! As if 
they, the rich, belonged to another species or race. It 
reminds one of the man who visited a church ; the 
preacher preached a very pathetic sermon and all eyes 
were wet with tears except those of the visitor, who sat 
utterly unmoved with stern features. Being asked why 
he remained so stolid, he replied : " I am not a member." 
Mr. Bellamy says : " As for those whose parents and 
grandparents before them had been so fortunate as to 
keep their seats on the top, the conviction they cherished 
of the essential difference between their sort of humanity 
and the common article was absolute. The effect of such 
a delusion in moderating fellow-feeling for the sufferings 
of the mass of men into a distant and philosophical com- 
passion, is obvious." # 

* See Civilization's Inferno, or Studies in the Social Cellar, by 
B. O. Flower. f Looking Backward, page 13. 



212 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Mr. Bellamy draws a contrast between the ornamental 
residences of private homes and the unsightly public 
places and thoroughfares. This is Individualism with a 
vengeance indeed. The rich display taste enough in con- 
structing their mansions, in the furniture, carpets, and 
oil-paintings within, and in the lawns and flower-gardens 
without, but they disregard public interests, as is manifest 
in the streets full of mire in wet days, almost impassable ; 
in the absence of public parks and fountains in smaller 
cities ; in the unhealthy tenement-houses in large cities, 
houses in which the children of workingmen are deprived 
of God's free air, in being reduced to the wretched alter- 
native of playing indoors. Mr. Bellamy depicts the con- 
trast between the culture and refinement of the rich, and 
the ignorance and vulgarity of the poor thus : " Is a man 
satisfied, merely because he is perfumed himself, to 
mingle with a malodorous crowd? Could he take more 
than a very limited satisfaction, even in a palatial apart- 
ment, if the windows on all four sides opened into stable- 
yards ? Like one up to the neck in a nauseous 

bog solacing himself with a smelling-bottle." * It is 
because the cultured are so insensible to the wants and 
sufferings of the laboring classes, that the latter organize 
themselves into societies and unions. It is because the 
educated, those who ought to take the initiative in social 
reforms, are either indifferent, or irrationally conservative, 
that workingmen form themselves into associations ; it is 
because the enormously wealthy, who have influence and 
leisure, do not spend any of their time, energy and means 
in behalf of millions of their fellow-men, who, like animals, 
are engaged in the fierce struggle for existence, for pro- 
curing the necessaries of life, to supply their bodily wants. 
* Looking Backward, p. 220. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



213 



It is on account of this, that again, as in the case of the 
ancient Hebrews, the people of God, " sighed by reason 
of the bondage, and they cried, and their cry came up 
unto God, and God heard their groaning." * It is on 
account of the re-enactment of ancient scenes, wherein 
the mighty capitalists repeat the wily saying, " Come, let 
us deal cunningly with them ! " f Let us, by the 
sweating system, avail ourselves of the fruit of their toil ; 
let us oppress, by reason of our monetary power, and 
keep down the creators of the national wealth / It is on 
account of these things that strikes occur, those alarm- 
bells of outraged humanity ; those rude strikes which are 
the harbingers of the advent of freedom, of the emancipa- 
tion of the white slaves. Ay, they are the battle-cry for 
liberty. Again a Moses is needed to deliver the people 
of God ; again heroes are needed like William Lloyd Gar- 
rison ; again we need orators like Wendell Phillips ; 
statesmen like Charles Sumner ; poets like James Russell 
Lowell, and great-hearted martyrs like Abraham Lincoln. 
Again we need men of original mind and iron will, who 
say : "We will fight it out on this line if it takes all sum- 
mer." Ay, God will raise up great philanthropists and 
bold reformers who will redeem not only the oppressed 
working-classes, but will save deluded millionaire-capitalists 
and rich gamblers in wheat and other products, from moral 
bankruptcy, and teach them the lesson of the brotherhood 
of man. 

How will this consummation be effected ? By legisla- 
tion ? I think not. I agree with Mr. Herbert Spencer 
thus far as to the negative part of his political creed. In 
an essay published a few years ago in the Conte??ifiorary 
Review, he says : " The laws it (the government) passes 

* Exodus ii., 23-24. | Exodus i., 10. 



214 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

are not in themselves sacred ; whatever sacredness they 
have, is entirely due to the ethical sanction — an ethical 
sanction which is derivable from the laws of human life. 

And there will come the corollary, that 

when they have not this ethical sanction, they have no 
sacredness, and may rightly be challenged." * Still 
more to the point is the following passage, which occurs 
in another essay of the philosopher : " There seems no 
getting people to accept the truth, which nevertheless is 
conspicuous enough, that the welfare of a society and the 
justice of its arrangements are at bottom dependent on 
the characters of its members ; and that improvement in 
neither can take place without that improvement in char- 
acter, which results from carrying on peaceful industry 
under the restraints imposed by an orderly social life. 
The belief not only of the socialists, but also of those so- 
called Liberals who are diligently preparing the way for 
them, is that by due skill an ill-working humanity may be 
framed into well-working institutions. It is a delusion. 
The defective natures of citizens will show themselves in 
the bad acting of whatever social structure they are 
arranged into. There is no political alchemy by which 
you can get golden conduct out of leaden instincts." f 
This opinion is shared by a great political economist of 
the New Era, Baron von Hellenbach, who says : " Having 
as a born member of two legislative bodies gained the 
conviction in political life that all theories are frustrated 
by the selfishness of the majority of citizens and espe- 
cially of politicians, I have given up all efforts in this 
direction. I consider the curbing of selfishness as the 
first and most urgent task of the present generation, after 

* The Great Political Superstition. 
The Coming Slavery : Contemporary Review 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 215 

which, questions of social and economical import will 
solve themselves spontaneously." # 

Here Mr. Bellamy's views seem not to agree with the 
spiritual philosophy. On page 60 of his charming book, 
Looking Backward, Mr. West, in contemplating the Utopia 
of Dr. Leete's age, exclaims : 

" Human nature must have changed very much." To 
which the reply is, " Not at all." " We have no parties," 
says Dr. Leete, " or politicians, and as for demagoguery 
and corruption, they are words having only an historical 
significance." With human nature unchanged, with the 
selfishness and cupidity that characterize the industrial 
and commercial world of to-day, it is hard to believe that 
mere external arrangements are able to accomplish the 
desired end. On the contrary, the gradual evolution of 
better social institutions can only take place pari passu 
with moral progress or spiritual development. 

It is needless here to mention the fact, that red-hot 
measures of brute force and dynamite arguments of an 
explosive character are utterly abhorred by the spiritual 
science expounded in this book. " Not by armed force, 
nor by power (physical), but by my spirit, saith the Lord 
of hosts." t 

The Religion of the Future is, what Mathew Arnold 
calls, "the sweet reasonableness of Jesus." A reason- 
ableness that will make it obvious to selfish capitalists 
that they are pursuing a suicidal course ; that, though they 
may amass millions, they are fast becoming spiritual pau- 
pers, and that they lay up for themselves suffering and 
remorse in the future. This is the great feature in the 
new dispensation, namely, men will be deterred from 

* Der Individualismus, Zweite Auflage, page 230. 
t Zachariah iv. 6. 



216 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

transgressing moral law, just as men are deterred from 
transgressing physical law. Self-interest will prompt right 
conduct, and fear of the inevitable penalty will restrain a 
man from over-reaching another, just as fear of bodily in- 
jury will prevent a man from putting his hand into the fire. 
And here once more the reader's attention is called to 
the immense superiority of the ethics of spiritual philoso- 
phy. No matter how lofty the moral teachings of liberal- 
minded and enlightened Christian ministers, absolute 
honesty is impossible in the commercial world of to-day. 
" The co-existence of a perfect man and an imperfect soci- 
ety is impossible," writes Mr. Spencer. " Ideal conduct, 
such as ethical theory is concerned with, is not possible 
for the ideal man in the midst of men otherwise consti- 
tuted." * Mr. Spencer, accordingly, designates that con- 
duct which is only possible in an imperfect society, Rela- 
tive Ethics. He devotes a whole chapter to the discussion 
of the difference between the absolute and a relative moral 
standard. He argues that, as the laws of motion are 
merely ideal abstractions, serving as standards for the 
real actual motion of the planets, which motion takes 
place under perturbing influences, so is there an ideal 
moral law serving as an ideal standard for the real, actual, 
possible conduct of men, which he calls Relative Ethics. 
So in mechanics, in physiology, in geometry, there are 
formulated ideal laws, perfect standards, by which alone 
the real concrete principles can be determined. The ideal 
laws are never realized, as such, in the system of nature. 
It is not otherwise, says Mr. Spencer, with ethics : " There 
exists an ideal code of conduct formulating the behavior 
of the completely adapted man in the completely evolved 
societv. Such a code is that here called Absolute Ethics 

* The Data of Ethics, page 279, et s" 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 217 

— as distinguished from Relative Ethics — a code the in- 
junctions of which are alone to be considered as abso- 
lutely right, in contrast with those that are relatively right 
or least wrong ; and which, as a system of ideal conduct, 
is to serve as a standard for our guidance in solving, as 
well as we can, the problems of real conduct." * 

If now we ask Mr. Spencer : What are the ideal laws of 
human conduct ? we shall find that from his standpoint of 
evolution, he recognizes no life beyond the grave, hence 
he himself flagrantly transgresses the logical law he lays 
down on the first page of his Data of Ethics, to wit : " If 
the part is conceived without any reference to the whole, it 
becomes itself a whole — an independent entity ; and its rela- 
tions to existence in general are misapprehended" I have 
put these words in italics to show how even a Herbert 
Spencer must necessarily misapprehend man's place in 
nature, if he conceives the part without any reference to 
the whole. Necessarily to Mr. Spencer, ethics is only a 
social problem. He is an optimist, not a pessimist. But 
what is the nature or scope of his optimism ? In some 
very remote future there will be " an altruistic competi- 
tion, analogous to the existing egoistic competition," be- 
cause men will have become so sensitive, that it will give 
them pain to know that others are uncomfortable. Yet 
"numerous problems" in ethics, "alike important and 
difficult," remain problems " admitting only of empirical 
solutions." A few of these " numerous problems, admit- 
ting only of empirical solutions," are enumerated, and the 
conclusion is reached that : " Evidently to these and many 
kindred questions included in this division of Relative 
Ethics, approximately true answers only can be given, f 

* The Data of Ethics, page 275. 
t Ibid., pages 287 and 288. 



218 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

But, waiving this objection to the philosopher's concep- 
tion of the future ideal society, let us, for argument's sake, 
assume all problems solved in a future Utopia : will that 
compensate the countless generations of the past, the mill- 
ions of human beings that have toiled and struggled and 
suffered on our globe ever since the race began to exist ? 
" Are the sufferings of mankind during millions of years 
not too high a price to pay for the questionable happiness 
of generations in so remote a future ? " * 

The Spiritual Philosophy recognizes no two standards ; 
it has only one true, absolute standard for the conduct of 
life. " Thou shalt not have in thy bag divers weights, a 
great and a small. Thou shalt not have in thine house 
divers measures, a great and a small. A perfect and just 
weight shalt thou have, a perfect and just measure." f 
Three thousand years ago, the Hebrew Legislator or- 
dained that there shall be no private ownership of land. 
"And the land shall not be sold in perpetuity; for the 
land is mine : for ye are strangers and sojourners with 
me." % Thirty centuries before Henry George was born, 
Moses aimed at the abolition of poverty. " Howbeit, 
there shall be no poor with thee." § The Spiritual Phi- 
losophy demands the reconstruction of social institutions 
into a state wherein honesty is possible ; absolute honesty ; 
a state of society wherein " love thy neighbor as thyself ! " 
will be a precept actually realizable in practical conduct ; 
a state of society wherein all that is preached can be 
practiced ; where there is no mere Sunday religion, but a 
holy every-day life ; where we need no priests as agents 
to transport us to heaven ; for we know absolutely that 
we go to heaven anyhow. We shall still need teachers or 

* Philosophic des gesunden Menschenverstandes, von L. B. Hel- 
lenbach, page 237. 

t Deut. xxv. 13-15. I Lev. xxv. 23. § Deut. xv. 4. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 219 

preachers, if the word be preferred, to instruct men and to 
persuade them ; but the ideal is to make every man to be 
his own priest, if so be that the laws of his being are 
written upon the tablet of his own heart ; a state of society 
wherein the rich will have to dispense with one of the 
measures devised for attaining bliss in heaven — alms- 
giving ; for there will be no poverty : in short, the spiritual 
philosophy, the universal religion of the future, impera- 
tively demands a just distribution of wealth, so that all 
men, not merely the rich, can devote their lives to higher 
spiritual aims, and thus be no more compelled to spend 
all their energies to procure the necessaries of life and to 
act meanly toward their fellow-men in rivalry and ignoble 
competition. Not all at once does the new dispensation 
hope to achieve this, but gradually in accordance with the 
laws of spiritual evolution. The Seers of our age may 
say with the ancient prophet : " I will stand upon my 
watch and set me upon the tower and look out." They 
likewise are inspired from above to " Write £he vision and 
make it plain upon tablets, that he who runs may read it 
easily. For the vision is for an appointed time, but at 
the end it shall speak, and not lie : though it tarry, wait 
for it, for it will assuredly come to pass." * Mankind has 
waited long. Our age is near to the era of the inaugura- 
tion of the Kingdom of God on earth. Smitten with 
spiritual blindness, the selfish princes of Mammon, the 
worshippers of the god of this earth, all those who pay 
undue homage to the golden calf, cannot perceive the 
tremendous factors already preparing the irresistible advent 
of a state of society wherein " Thy will be done on earth 
as it is in Heaven." Hence the first and most urgent task 
of all enlightened philanthropists of our age is the pro- 
mulgation of the truths of the Spiritual Philosophy. 

* Habakkuk ii. 1-3. 



220 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE, 



CHAPTER XXVI. 

THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

There can be but one true science of man, of his 
origin, his destiny and of the laws of his spiritual evolu- 
tion. There cannot be more than one true system of ex- 
ternal Nature, as the word cosmos implies. Likewise, 
there cannot be more than one true science of subjective 
nature, of the mental cosmos. It were absurd to speak of 
two sciences of astronomy ; for if they were both true, 
they would be identical and would constitute but one 
science, since things which are equal to the same thing, 
are equal to one another. If they were unlike, and one of 
them be the true science, the other would necessarily be 
wholly or partially false. The reason why there are so 
many diverse religions in the world is because the true 
one had not yet been discovered. Now that the true is 
known, the diversity will be superseded by unity ; and, 
for the first time in the history of our planet, one universal 
religion of humanity is possible ; the universal recognition 
of the Fatherhood of God and the Brotherhood of Man. 

In a noble and delightful book by Mr. John Fiske, the 
Herbert Spencer of America, the philosophical author casts 
a prospective glance at the " Manifest destiny " of man- 
kind. " I believe that the time will come," writes Mr. 
Fiske, " when it will be possible to speak of the United 
States as stretching from pole to pole — or, to speak with 
Tennyson, to celebrate the parliament of man and the 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 221 

federation of the world Our survey ends with 

the picture of a world covered with cheerful homesteads, 
blessed with a sabbath of perpetual peace." * 

What induces Mr. Fiske to form this conclusion is not 
sentiment, but logic. The premises underlying his con- 
clusion are simply the recognition of the " Struggle for 
Existence " in the realm of ideas, with its concomitant 
" the Survival of the Fittest." Applying these principles 
to political evolution, Mr. Fiske shows, that the American 
or republican form of government is the fittest, and must, 
as such, supplant ultimately all other forms. The same 
principles apply to religion. The law of the survival of 
the fittest and the impossibility of having more than one 
true science of man, establishes the fact that all existing 
religions will eventually be merged into one. This one 
and sole religion will be a synthesis of all religions and 
philosophical theories concerning man's place in nature. 
Therefore, no one need fear that any truth contained in 
his own distinctive religion will be lost, since all that is 
true in any system or creed whatsoever, will be conserved. 
The higher includes the lower; the superior comprises 
the inferior. " When that which is perfect is come, that 
which is partial shall be done away." f 

On the other hand, if it be conceded that no error, how- 
ever venerable, by reason of its antiquity, is, or can be 
truly useful, but must be misleading, then the giving up 
of erroneous doctrines, of false theological dogmas, ought 
not to be a matter of regret. The original thinker, the 
true investigator, will willingly part with lead if he can 
exchange it for gold. 

In the foregoing chapters, untenable traditional doctrines 
are either expressly repudiated, or their rejection is im- 
* American Political Ideas, page 152. t 1 Cor. xiii. 10. 



222 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

plied in the elucidations of the true doctrines. A few of 
the essential ones must here be briefly mentioned. 

The unworthy conception of a man-like God, or 
rather a powerful king who issues strict commands as to 
how he must be worshipped; who reveals the rules of 
how men must serve him ; the minute prescriptions of 
that service, the rites and ceremonies, the sacraments and 
ritual. These things seem borrowed from the code of 
ceremonies due to oriental kings or rather tyrants, whose 
subjects cringe or kneel before him in abject servility, 
and who is absolute Lord over their lives, and virtually 
owns them and their possessions. Many religious cere- 
monies are survivals of usages of primitive modes of wor- 
ship, worship consisting of bloody sacrifices and other 
barbarous rites that had no other object than to pro- 
pitiate the angry gods or to gain their favor. In the book 
of Numbers we read : " And the Lord spake unto Moses, 
saying, Command the children of Israel, and say unto 
them, My offering, even My bread for My sacrifices made 
by fire, for a sweet savour unto Me, shall ye observe to 
offer unto Me in their due season. Two lambs of the 
first year day by day for a continual burnt offering. The 
one lamb shalt thou offer in the morning, and the other 
lamb at evening." * Here is the conception of a morn- 
ing meal for God, as well as of an evening repast ; break- 
fast and supper of the great Jehovah, as it were. The 
incense is a " sweet savour " unto Him. In the book of 
Exodus, the Almighty is represented as giving minute in- 
structions as to the tabernacle and its furniture : the 
texture and color of the curtains, the construction of 
the altar and candlestick, the priestly garments and 
sacred vessels. He who desires to know the origin 
* Numbers, xxviii., 1-4. 



THE RELIGION- OF THE FUTURE. 223 

of many modern usages in synagogues and churches, as 
well as in social and domestic life, will find ample 
information in Mr. Herbert Spencer's " Principles of 
Sociology. " 

The principal theme of theologians has been hitherto 
" the relation and duty of man toward God." Now, as to 
the relation of man toward God, there are many analogies 
that define this relation much better than any ecclesiasti- 
cal authority or ecumenical council ever did. What is 
the relation of each drop of water to the whole ocean ? 
What is the relation of each bird to the air in which it 
lives, moves, and has its being ? 

As regards the duty of man towards God, the one 
thing that theology considers of prime significance, is 
to serve him. In the German language worship is called 
Gottesdienst, equivalent to our divine service, from the 
Hebrew Avodah, service, consisting of prayers, prescribed 
or spontaneous, ceremonies, various acts and rites, such 
as the so-called sacraments, etc. But in the new religion 
the main worship of God consists in the service of man. 
The duty of man is to cultivate the divine that is in his 
own nature, and to devote his life to the service of — 
humanity. The prophets in Israel made some attempts 
to direct the minds of their contemporaries to this true 
service or worship of God. Their aim, however, of sub- 
stituting an ethical religion in the place of mere ceremonial 
piety, was frustrated by the popular love of priestly cere- 
monial. 

The essence of the new religion is the spiritual growth 
of man. The progressive steps in man's spiritual evolution 
are indicated by the great modern Seer, A. J. Davis, in 
the following ascending scale : " In the Love, or actuat- 
ing Principle, are — 



224 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

i. Self-Love. 4. Fraternal Love. 

2. Conjugal Love. 5. Filial Love. 

3. Parental Love. 6. Universal Love. 

" The last and highest, namely Universal Love, is that 
which St. Paul so inimitably described in the 13th chapter 
of 1 Corinthians, and which is the kind of service the re- 
ligion of the future will render unto God. " If I speak with 
the tongues of men and angels, but have not love, I am 
become sounding brass, or a clanging cymbal. And if I 
have the gift of prophecy, and know all mysteries and all 
knowledge ; and if I have all faith, so as to remove mount- 
ains, but have not love, I am nothing. And if I bestow all 
my goods to feed the poor, and if I give my body to be 
burned, but have not love, it profiteth me nothing. Love 
surTereth long, and is kind ; love envieth not ; love vaunteth 
not itself, is not puffed up, doth not behave itself unseemly, 
seeketh not its own, is not provoked, taketh not account 
of evil ; rejoiceth not in unrighteousness, but rejoiceth 
with the truth ; beareth all things, believeth ail things, 
hopeth all things, endureth all things. Love never 
faileth : but whether there be prophecies, they shall be 
done away ; whether there be tongues, they shall cease ; 
whether there be knowledge, it shall be done away. For 
we know in part, and we prophesy in part ; but when that 
which is perfect is come, that which is in part shall be 
done away. When I was a child, I spake as a child, I 
felt as a child, I thought as a child : now that I am be- 
come a man, I have put away childish things. But now 
abideth faith, hope, love, these three ; and the greatest 
of these is love." # 

The following is the ascending scale in the Wisdom, or 
the governing principle : 

* The Revised New Testament, 1 Cor., chap. xiii. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 225 

1. Use (self-interest). 

2. Justice, 

3. Power, 

4. Beauty, 

5. Aspiration, 

6. Harmony. 

The ideally religious man is called by Davis the Har- 
monial man. The following table will make this clearer, 
as given by this author : 

Self Love Use Individuality. 

Conjugal Love Justice Marriage. 

Parental Love Power Offspring. 

Fraternal Love Beauty Socialism. 

Filial Love Aspiration Elevation. 

Univeral Love Harmony Happiness. 

The reader is referred to the essay of Mr. Davis, where- 
in these terms are fully explained as to their application. 
For instance, in the triad named Parental Love, etc., the 
power extends to all productions of the human mind, 
brought forth by contrivance and invention, constituting 
offspring. In the triad of Filial Love, Aspiration, and 
Elevation, there is comprised the veneration and admira- 
ation of all great and good men and their deeds ; the 
aspiration after all that is great and noble and godlike. 
So that one can find in this Essay something like a pro- 
gramme of the progressive spiritual development of 
man. * 

It must not be supposed that, besides the homage paid 
to God through self-culture and philanthropy, there is in 
the new religion no real worship, in the proper and pri- 
mary sense of the word. Ay, there is ; and though the 

* Individual and Social Culture. In Vol. II. of The Great Har- 
monia, by A. J. Davis, page 123-180. 
15 



226 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

real worship is not called " service" as something due to 
God, it is as exalted an exercise of the soul as can be 
imagined, being an expression of the soul's aspiration 
and longing for communion with, and inspiration from the 
Divine Spirit. It instinctively seeks poetic forms of lan- 
guage ; the music and poetry of sacred hymns ; as instinc- 
tively as the lyrical poet seeks effusion in measured 
verses ; as natural and spontaneous as the song of the 
nightingale and the fragrance of flowers. In engaging in 
sacred meditation of public instruction, in touching the 
chords of divine themes, in contemplating the ineffable 
heights which every human being is destined to reach in 
due time, it would be strange indeed if there were no out- 
pouring of the soul's aspiration and sentiment in prayer 
and invocation ! True worship is as the dew of heaven 
distilled in diamond drops ; and tears of emotion, long- 
ing for righteousness, and supplication for Divine succor 
are the spontaneous effusions of true devotion. 

But the one thing lacking in the religion of the future is 
— a fixed creed. As it is said of science, that if it were 
to adopt a creed, it would commit suicide, so a fixed creed 
would contradict, glaringly, the fundamental principle of 
eternal progression. The religion of the future has no 
creed at all, no authoritative system of belief, no shib- 
boleth and no priests ; no ritual, except the altar erected 
by the spiritual intuitions of the human heart. 

Ah, the world has had enough of creeds, of authorita- 
tive systems of "believe and be saved, disbelieve and be 
damned." However spurious the alleged saying of Jesus 
may be, as recorded in the New Testament, to wit : 

" He that believeth on Him is not condemned, but he 
that believeth not is condemned already. " * It was evi- 
* John iii. 18. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 227 

dently regarded by theologians as a warrant, if not a call, 
for forcible measures to make men believe a man-made 
creed, and to prevent their deviating from it. " He who 
believes that his neighbor's heresy is destined to be pun- 
ished after death by excruciating tortures of infinite dura- 
tion, will not scruple to use the most violent means for 
rescuing him from his perilous condition. Obviously, 
such a conclusion may be entertained without sophistry. 
Once admit that salvation is possible only within the 
limits of your own sect, and it may well be argued that 
you are bound, in benevolence, if not in Justice, to com- 
pel all dissenters to " enter in " to that sect. If persecu- 
tion be needful to obtain such an object, then, on this 
view of the case, it would really be hard-hearted to 
refrain from using it. If pulleys and thumb-screws can 
substitute eternal happiness for future torments like 
those described by Dante, then pulleys and thumb-screws 
are instruments of charity and kindness. On this view of 
the case the typical religious persecutor is a man in whom 
unselfish philanthropy has become such an uncontrollable 
impulse that, no matter how great the violence to his 
natural feelings of humanity, he will not hesitate to 
employ the most rigorous and appalling measures to re- 
strain his fellow-creatures from incurring the risk of endless 
misery. Such men exist to-day (according to the opinion 

of the late Dr. Buckle) But they no longer 

use such rigorous and appalling means of constraining 
the opinions of their fellow-creatures, because — for one 
thing — they have not the power to do so. And they 
have lost the power to do so, because such a general 
skepticism has come to pervade the community, that the 
dogma of exclusive salvation has become discredited." * 
* Excursions of an Evolutionist, by John Fiske, p. 215. 



228 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

In Chapter XXI. of this work, attention was called to 
the domineering spirit of the Church to-day, in this so- 
called free country; to the hypocritical compliance of 
Congress of the United States with the demand of religi- 
ous fanatics to close the Chicago World's Fair on Sunday, 
by which thousands of laboring men, women and children 
are virtually deprived of the privilege to see the great 
exhibition. Attention was called to the unconstitutional 
Sunday laws, and legal holidays of Good Friday, etc., to 
which I will now add the following outgrowth of modern 
fanaticism : 

" LAW AND ORDER LEAGUE. " 

" Law and order societies are being formed in many 
counties in Pennsylvania and New York, and it wouldn't 
be surprising if steps were soon taken to form a similar 
organization in Bradford. The order is now doing effec- 
tive work in many states. A peculiar feature of the League 
is that one member does not know any other member. 
Two partners in a business firm may be members of the 
organization, yet each ignorant of the other's interest 
in the work. One of the main objects of the order is 
to compel the observance of the Sunday and liquor laws. In 
various places the order contains business me7i ivho are 
afraid to support openly any law and order movement, for 
the reason that it affected their business. But under the 
rules of this secret society every one is e?iabled to give his 
assistance without fear of detection" * 

Here we have a veritable Inquisition in miniature, 
which, if it lack the cruelty of its terrible prototype, 
excels that infamous tribunal in cowardly meanness. 
* From the Bradford Daily Era, of February 8, 1893. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 229 

As I write, the following comes to my hands : " In the 
New York State Senate at Albany, a bill was lately in- 
troduced by Senator Edwards, forbidding any person, 
for reward, to tell fortunes or forecast future events, etc., 
by means of astrology, clairvoyance, divination, spiritu- 
alism, palmistry, trance mediumship, or by means of any 
other alleged or pretended supernatural or occult powers. 
Such persons shall be deemed common swindlers and 
fined $25. Advertising by such persons is forbidden under 
the same penalty, and the printing or circulation of such 
advertisements is forbidden." * 

The cardinal principles of the religion, known as the 
Spiritual Philosophy, are no more a creed than the Prin- 
cipia of Newton, or the astronomical laws of the Coperni- 
can system. If I can persuade my neighbor to study the 
laws of gravitation or electricity, well and good; if he 
disbelieve these laws, well and good, too, though not so 
good for him, in case he should in his ignorance trans- 
gress those laws, and reap the penalty. It is the same 
with the laws of spiritual evolution. Like the laws of 
gravitation, electricity and other physical laws, the laws 
of man's spiritual nature can and ought to be studied, 
and to persuade men to do so, is all that the teachers 
of the new religion can do. 

To sum up : A truer conception of God involves a 
purer worship, does away with an authoritatively pre- 
scribed code of " service," or ceremonial ; recognizes 
universal benevolence as the most appropriate homage to 
the Deity, and repudiates a formal system of belief. 

The religion of the future being based upon the funda- 
mental laws of human nature, the laws of Ego-altruism, 

* See an important paper : The Menace of Medical Monopoly, by 
Dr. B. O. Flower, editor, in The Arena for February, 1894. 



230 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

by which every individual is by nature related to every 
other individual and to the whole human race, so much 
so, that self-culture involves indispensably the unselfish 
devotion of one's life to the service of humanity ; and that 
in the great chain of mankind every single link is precious 
and indissolubly united with the whole ; this fundamental 
principle of the natural fraternity of the human race, will 
overthrow gradually, but surely, the sectarianism now di- 
viding men ; dividing them in opinion and often in feeling 
and sympathy, as the terms Jew and Gentile, Catholic and 
Protestant, Buddhist and Mohammedan suggest. If all 
men are brothers and sisters by birth, then they are natu- 
rally brethren and need no sect or lodge to fraternize 
them. Being a member of the same church or lodge, Mr. 
A. calls Mr. B. Brother, and considers himself in duty 
bound by the laws of his creed or lodge to treat him fra- 
ternally, aid him, and help to rescue him when in distress, 
etc. But how about his next door neighbor, Mr. C, who 
is not a member of Mr. A.'s church or lodge ? Is he not 
veritably his brother also ? Away with these distinc- 
tions, they were the curse of mankind long enough ! 
Ay, sectarianism is doomed. The Spiritual philosophy 
has sentenced it inexorably to extinction, " not by force, 
nor by power, but by my Spirit." * And the execution 
of the sentence is entrusted to natural agencies, to the 
divine laws of progress : " All these denominations which 
have stood apart so long, whose theology has been so 
antagonistic, are now merging into one church. In the 
face of the great danger which Spiritualism or Liberalism 
has brought to their sight, they endeavor to return to their 
first estate, but in returning they lose their identity. This 
result is sure, though unperceived by them. One by one, 
* Zech. iv. 6. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 231 

they will give up this point of difference and that point of 
difference, this creed and that creed, for the sake of har- 
mony. This vestment they lay aside, and that form, until 
they will all be swallowed up, and neither Methodists nor 
Calvinists, Baptists nor Lutherans, Armenians, Jews nor 
Gentiles will remain. Then the primitive church of Christ 
will be revived again upon earth, simple and unostenta- 
tious ; its creed will be the creed of Jesus Christ : " The 
brotherhood of man, and the love of God for his chil- 
dren." * 

It is related in the New Testament that when Jesus 
began to instruct the masses (" and the common people 
heard him gladly "), his kinsmen " heard of it, and they 
went out to lay hold on him : for they said, He is beside 
himself." " Then, one said unto him, Behold, thy mother 
and thy brethren stand without, desiring to speak with 
thee. But he stretched forth his hand towards his dis- 
ciples and said, Behold my mother and my brethren ! For 
whosoever shall do the will of my Father which is in 
heaven, the same is my brother, and sister, and mother." f 

Alas ! this sublime and grand teacher was deified ; but 
his teachings were neglected or perverted, and so mis- 
construed by a false theology, as to produce effects dia- 
metrically opposed to what was intended by the great 
teacher. Christianity exalted the messenger and neglected 
the message. "Truth takes upon itself two forms of 
manifestation ; one is the declaration of the principle it- 
self, the other is the instrumentality of its presentation. 
Most people consider the method quite as much as the 
truth, and often magnify the instrumentality more than 
that which is given. The visible Christ seemed to be 
more important then the message he brought ; the imper- 

* Strange Visitors, page 209. t Matthew xii. 47-50. 



232 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

sonated Vishnu in the form of Buddha more real than the 
truth declared. For this reason Christs have been born 
in lowly places ; for this reason truth has often sought out 
unfamiliar ways for expression — the lowliest, the humblest, 
the most despised — in order that name and greatness, 
and place and power might not dominate the mind with 
reference to the declaration. For this reason the lowliness 
of the birth of Christ has often been referred to, and the 
fact that he came from the Nazarenes, a despised class of 
people, has often been dwelt upon ; as often, to-day, if a 
spiritual message does not come through authorized 
sources, if church and state and science are not consulted, 
there are many people who object to it on that account ; 
not remembering that there never has been a new pres- 
entation of truth that was accepted by those who were 
already established in crystallized forms of thought. If 
the truth related to the state, then kings and rulers ob- 
jected ; for were not their laws perfect? If the truth 
related to religion, the church objected ; for was not its 
authority supreme and its revelation final ? Could the 
Brahmins accept Buddha, when they had all the ancient 
records to fall back upon and the interpretations of ages ? 
Could the Jews accept Jesus of Nazareth, one of the low- 
liest among the people, when they had all the laws of 
the prophets and all the interpretations thereof? And 
could there come any good out of Nazareth ? This has 
been asked in every age. The same is true with ref- 
erence to science. The established forms of thought are 
often supposed to be final, and though it is exceedingly 
unscientific to declare anything completed in science, it is 
the practice of scientific men to ignore anything not dis- 
covered by themselves or not authoritatively established 
by formula and testimony. Notwithstanding this, the 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 233 

electric flashes traverse the globe, the steam-horse bears 
our burdens, and the modern steamship transports us 
across the ocean. Notwithstanding law and precedent in 
religion and state, new forms of thought take up their 
abiding place in whatever Nazareth they choose to select, 
and the more humble and lowly, the more wonderful the 
manifestation. Notwithstanding these established pre- 
cedents and customs, the world grows steadfastly toward 
the new expressions of thought in every direction, and 
whatever is latest is liable to be true. No man can say : 
1 1 had all the truth yesterday and need nothing more to- 
day. ' Instrumentalities are to be considered in exact 
proportion to the importance of the message that is 
given. The blind worship of the visible form of Christ 
has led to all the creed and idolatry of the Church." # 

In this citation I have partly anticipated the question : 
" What place must be assigned to Jesus in the pantheon 
of spiritual progress ? " Jesus was an incarnation, so 
is each human being ; Jesus was the son of God, so is 
each human being. But in the light of what has been 
said in Chapter XXII. of this book, on " Spiritual Evolu- 
tion," it must be evident to the thoughtful student that 
Jesus had already attained a great height in his spiritual 
evolution, when he once more incarnated himself in order 
to bring the light of higher truth to his expectant brethren. 
Jesus came on a great mission. Having, perhaps ages 
ago, graduated from our planet as an angel and reached 
a high altitude, the spiritual philosophy sees no improba- 
bility in the alleged statement of Jesus : " I have over- 
come the world." f He was rejected as Messiah by the 
Jews because his kingdom was not of this world, and they 

* From an address by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, in The Pro- 
gressive Thinker, of April 22, 1893. t John xvi. 33. 



234 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

expected a political redeemer and material power and 
dominion, along with spiritual ascendency. The spirit- 
ual ascendency, however, could only be gained by 
abandoning mechanical religion and mere letter-wor- 
ship, and substituting spiritual religion, in accordance 
with what their own prophets had already taught : " Be- 
hold the days come, said the Lord, that I will make a 
new covenant with the house of Israel," was the prediction 
of Jeremiah, not like the old covenant, but " this is the 
covenant that I will make with the house of Israel, saith 
the Lord ; I will put my law in their inward parts, and in 
their heart will I write it." * Recognizing their extreme 
conservativeness, the fruit of retrogressive Rabbinism, 
Jesus saw before him, what we moderns would call, a 
priest-ridden race. So he adapted his teachings to their 
state of mind ; taught them what they were prepared to 
receive in the form of pleasant parable or allegory. The 
literal truth was too dazzling for their weak spiritual sight, 
so he veiled it in proverb and parable, such as of old 
delighted the popular mind in the poetical part of Talmud 
and Midrash. " He spake many things to them in 
parables." " Without a parable spake he not to them." f 
Hiding the truth, as it were, within an apparently enter- 
taining story, the incomparable teacher made the bitter 
medicine palatable through a sweet coating. " And the 
common people heard him gladly." They were amused 
by the parable, which was the shell containing a precious 
kernel. By and by, as they grew spiritually, the real 
truth intended would be revealed in the allegory. This 
condescending of Jesus to the low level of the masses, 
explains the concessions made by Jesus to the popular 
views regarding the sacred record of their scriptures. 

* Jer. xxxi., 31-33. t Mark, iv., 34. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 235 

" Jesus of Nazareth was undoubtedly a powerful medium 
or instrumentality, through whose organism spiritual gifts 
and powers could be exercised. Directed by unseen, but 
wise, intelligences, and drawing much of his power from 
the spiritual atmosphere, he became, as it were, a reservoir 
of force, which he supplied to the needy and sick. Im- 
parting his magnetic life to those who were suffering, he 
brought them back to a condition of health and comfort ; 
giving ministrations of kindly word, and instruction to 
the unfortunate ; those who were depraved or distressed 
by external environments, he brought to them a new light 
and impetus to rise above their darkened condition, and 
to search for truth and happiness. He dispensed that 
which was really his life — the magnetic power of his being, 
— whether expended in healing the sick or in imparting 
strength of mind to those who were depressed and who 
needed comfort. The same signs will follow those who 
seek for them and who are laboring unselfishly in the 
spiritual vineyard of truth for the benefit of humanity ; 
for all who desire to perform such work are sufficiently 
mediumistic to have their atmosphere impinged upon by 
that of spiritual intelligences seeking to befriend humanity. 
As they enter upon their work and become interested in 
it — not because of the honor or glory it may bring them, 
but because of the good it does to others — they will find 
their mediumship increasing in strength and expression, 
and so they will become the recipients of that bounty 
which the angels have to bestow, and gain more and more 
of the power of working what, in ancient days, were called 
miracles, but which are only the outgrowth of the expres- 
sion of natural law in human life. 

" So there may be healers who impart magnetic strength 
and stimulus to the weak and suffering ; so there may be 



236 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

inspired speakers, giving the bread of life and the word 
of truth unto those who seek for knowledge and who pine 
for consolation concerning not only the laws and the con- 
ditions of this life, but also of the life beyond ; so there 
may be workers in various fields of helpfulness and re- 
form, dispensing their powers and giving their strength, 
and the signs of their life and work may follow them in 
the results wrought in the lives of those ministered to. 
If they are faithful and honest, and seek only for the out- 
working of the best spiritual powers, it matters not whether 
these workers are known in the vineyard of what is called 
Christianity, out upon the broad planes of liberal thought, 
or even among those who know nothing of the various 
forms of religion ; it matters not by what name a man or 
woman is called, the power may be inherent within, and 
it may be brought out and expressed in helpful ways unto 
mankind, if the work is entered upon unselfishly, devotedly 
and with fidelity to purpose." * 

That Christ's mission was not to be the bearer of a 
final Revelation is obvious from His declaration : " I 
have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot hear 
them now." f And because men were not prepared as 
yet for certain higher definitions of still more advanced 
truths, they were told : " Howbeit, when the Spirit of 
truth is come, He will guide you into all truth." % 

The spiritual movement in this latter half of the nine- 
teenth century is, therefore, the advent of a New Dis- 
pensation. It announces what was announced at the 
advent of a former dispensation : I am not come to destroy, 
but to fulfil. 

* From the Controlling Spirit's answer to a question, in the Message 
department of " The Banner of Light," April 15, 1893. 

t John xvi. 12. % Ibid., verse 13. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 237- 



CHAPTER XXVII. 

THE BIBLE. 

Though modern scientific materialism is now dis- 
avowed by science and by philosophical thinkers as 
utterly untenable, and, what is called Agnosticism has 
taken its place, the attitude of modern thought toward the 
miraculous element in the Bible is still that of utter unbe- 
lief. Biblical criticism of the type of Strauss and Re- 
nan advances various theories, not only to disprove mira- 
cles, and to explain them away, but to show how they 
originated in the superstitious and unscientific minds of 
ancient men. Other men who are experts in their own 
chosen field of scientific research, feel impelled to go out 
of their way and write essays, and even books, to show 
that if men would only give up the belief in the supernat- 
ural, the Bible would become a rational, enjoyable book. 
Mr. Matthew Arnold is a prolific writer on this theme, 
and he is a popular author, his style being as lucid and 
charming as that of M. Renan. In one of his books he 
sets himself this problem : " to find for the Bible a basis 
in something which can be verified." * 

As regards miracles, he comes to the conclusion that 

they not only cannot be satisfactorily proved, but that 

the popular belief in them is doomed by the very spirit of 

the time we live in. " Our point is," he says, " that the 

* Literature and Dogma, Preface, page ix. 



238 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

objections to miracles do, and more and more will, without 
insistence, without attack, without controversy, make their 
own force felt ; and that the sanction of Christianity, if 
Christianity is not to be lost along with its miracles, must 
be found elsewhere." * 

The spirit of our time is no more disposed to even dis- 
cuss the subject of miracles, says Mr. Lecky in his Ra- 
tionalism in Europe. " At present," he writes, in Vol. I, 
page 27, "nearly all educated men receive an account of 
a miracle taking place in their own day, with an absolute, 
and even derisive incredulity, which dispenses with all ex- 
amination of the evidence. In a further larger book on 
God and the Bible, Mr. Arnold scorns to reply to Dr. 
Mozley's Bampton Lectures on Miracles. Observe how 
he verifies the above assertion of Mr. Lecky. " To write 
a refutation of his (Dr. Mozley's) Bampton Lectures is 
precisely, in our opinion, to do what Strauss has well 
called " going out of one's way to assail the paper fortifi- 
cations which theologians choose to set up." To engage 
in an a priori argument to prove that miracles are impos- 
sible, against an adversary who argues a priori that they 
are possible, is the vainest labor in the world. So long 
as the discussion was of this character, miracles were in 
no danger. The time for it is now past, because the hu- 
man mind, whatever may be said for or against miracles 
a priori, is in fact now losing its reliance upon- them ; and 
it is losing it for this reason ; as its experience widens, 
it gets acquainted with the natural history of miracles, it 
sees how they arise, and it slowly, but inevitably puts 
them aside. f 

Of men, masters in their own particular branch of 
scientific research, that have entered the arena of theo- 
* Literature and Dogma, page 139. t " God and the Bible," page 42. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 239 

logical controversy, we may mention Prof. John Fiske 
and Prof. Huxley. The former is a profound philosopher 
and a cautious writer. Prof. Fiske almost " fears to 
tread "where others "rush in." "Already," he writes, 
"we have more than once shown that the possibilities of 
thought are not co-extensive with the possibilities of 
things." * 

This is really a philosophical maxim of prime importance. 
But Mr. Fiske is not always mindful of his own preaching. 
He goes on to say : " All knowing is classifying." This is 
laid down in his philosophy as a canon of thought. " It is 
admitted on all sides that the perception of an object 
necessarily implies the recognition of the object. What do 
we mean when we say that any given phenomenon has 
been explained ? We mean simply that it has been 
ranked along with similar phenomena, which, having pre- 
viously been grouped together, are said to be under- 
stood." f Applying this logical principle to the origin of 
myths, Mr. Fiske says in his Myths and Myth-makers, 
page 21, "A thing is said to be explained when it is clas- 
sified with other things with which we are already ac- 
quainted. That is the only kind of explanation of which 

the highest science is capable But the primitive man 

explained the same thing to his own satisfaction when he 
had classified it along with the well-known phenomena of 
human volition." 

That the human mind itself is a reservoir of forces, that 
lie latent in all men, and that exceptional phenomena, 
unknown to modern physical science, have been wrought 
in all ages by what Mr. Fiske depreciates as human voli- 
tion, does not enter as a factor in this author's " Origin of 
Myths." 

* Cosmic Philosophy, vol. ii., page 431. 
t Ibid., vol. i., 11, 27. vol, ii., 106, 297. 



240 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Professor Clifford tolerates no new thing that does not 
resemble old and known things. " We may believe what 
goes beyond our experience, only when it is inferred from 
that experience by the assumption that what we do not 
know is like what we know." * 

This formidable sentence means, in simple language, 
this : that, if there is already a pigeon-hole at hand into 
which a new discovery can be made to fit, the discovery 
may be welcomed ; otherwise, it must be duly rejected." f 

Professor Huxley feels called upon to write on religion ; 
not, however, from the standpoint of the sacred singer in 
Israel, who says : " I believe, therefore I speak." $ Con- 
trariwise, the Professor says : " I believe not, therefore I 
speak." For he is eager to show why he does not be- 
lieve, and to prove that we cannot know whether man is 
immortal or not. He labors hard to demolish the belief 
in the Biblical miracles, by invalidating the evidence ; he 
even undertakes to give us an essay on The Evolution of 
Theology. 

Even in fiction, in the form of novels, the reading pub- 
lic is entertained by typical instances of the tendency of 
our age to discredit the marvelous part of Scripture. The 
Rev. Robert Elsmere is thus changed from an orthodox 
believer into a modern unbeliever, though it well-nigh 
breaks the heart of his saintly wife.§ 

Though the a priori objection against miracles is theo- 
retically given up as unscientific, it is still in vogue with 
most writers and iconoclastic lecturers, being tacitly as- 
sumed, if not expressly stated. Prof. Huxley excepted, 

* Prof. Clifford on The Ethics of Belief, in the Contemporary 
Review. 

t See above, Chap. XVII. \ Psalm cxvi. 10. 

§ Robert Elsmere. A Novel. By Mrs. Humphrey Ward. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 241 

who relies more on other tactics. It is with this tacit 
assumption of the antecedent impossibility of miracles, as 
it is with the assumption of materialism, notwithstanding 
its former disavowal. Materialism can be made so plaus- 
ible to the popular mind with very little effort, that spirit- 
ual demagogues can hardly resist the temptation to do so. 
// stands to reason, or, " it is common sense that mind is the 
product of organization," are the phrases usually em- 
ployed ; but the truth is, that common sense is as fallible 
as the senses ; as the eye, for instance, which informed 
men for thousands of years that the sun revolves around 
the earth, and that the earth is stationary. The hasty 
conclusion that miracles are impossible, that all evidence 
for them is to be rejected without examination ; that ac- 
counts of miracles are attributable either to superstition, 
hallucination, or imposture, is a convenient conclusion 
for lazy or shallow minds. Goethe says : " Truth, like 
pearls, lies deep in the bed of the ocean ; few are those 
who are prepared to dive, while error floats on the sur- 
face . " 

Even modern representatives of that gifted race, the 
Hebrews, are guilty of forming hasty conclusions in 
regard to miracles. In sheer reaction from Rabbinical 
traditions and ceremonials, they go to the other extreme 
and endeavor to explain away the supernatural element 
in the Old Testament, which endeavor is about as success- 
ful as the attempt, for instance, to present the play of 
Hamlet with the Prince of Denmark left out. 

One prominent Jewish Divine actually wrote a new 
version of the History of Israel, saying, by way of adver- 
tisement : (I quote from memory) " Here I give you a 
history of Israel without miracles or mysteries." In a 
conference of the radical wing of American Reform 

16 



242 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

Rabbis held at Pittsburg, Pa., in 1885, it was the sense of 
the meeting to declare in a new, so-called platform that all 
accounts of miracles in the Bible are to be regarded hence- 
forth as the childlike fancies of their ancient ancestors. 
The writer, who was present as a member of that confer- 
ence, earnestly protested, and the proposition was aban- 
doned. Intelligent Jewish men and women should not 
blindly follow the teachings of such false prophets, upon 
whom the mantle of Elijah did not fall. " Be not rash 
with thy mouth," says the old book, " and let not thine 
heart be hasty to utter anything before God." # I fer- 
vently hope that the Israelite of the near future awake 
from his dormant spiritual state and investigate this sub- 
ject for himself. " Thus saith the Lord of hosts, Hearken 
not unto the words of those prophets that prophesy 
unto you ; they teach you vanity ; they speak a vision 
of their own heart, and not out of the mouth of the 
Lord."t 

Have ye therefore forsaken the teachings of orthodox 
Rabbis, in order to fall into the meshes of cold unbelief ? 
Or shall we never become independent of authority ? Is it 
not predicted : " And they shall teach no more every man 
his neighbor, and every man his brother, saying, Know the 
Lord ; for they shall all know Me."| But when ye investi- 
gate, beware that ye judge not superficially, or follow the 
current of the fashionable opinion of the day. Be original, 
as the future man is to be, and as the prophet Isaiah de- 
scribes him : " He shall not judge after the sight of his 
eyes, neither decide after a hearing of his ears." § 

Then shall be fulfilled what is said in Scripture concern- 
ing the future : " And all thy children shall be disciples 

* Eccles. v. i. 1" Jeremiah xxiii. 16. 

% Jer. xxxi. 34. § Isaiah xi, 3. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 243 

of the Lord ; and great shall be the peace of thy chil- 
dren." * 

But to return to the general aspect of the matter, it is 
evident that the Bible has become an unintelligible book 
to those, learned or unlearned, who reject the miraculous 
element therein. Again the great Seer of old can repeat : 
" And all vision is become unto you as the words of a 
book that is sealed, which men deliver to one that is 
learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he saith, I 
cannot, for it is sealed ; and the book is delivered to him 
that is not learned, saying, Read this, I pray thee; and he 
saith I am not learned."f But the difficulty is one which 
pseudo-enlightenment has created for itself in assuming a 
priori that miracles are impossible, which is an unscien- 
tific assumption, and in neglecting a whole realm of 
psychic or occult forces and occurrences of the past and 
present, by which is revealed the fact that miracles have 
occurred universally, everywhere and in all ages, so that 
the Biblical evidence for them is taken out of the realm 
of impossibility and improbability. Nay, it would be 
strange and abnormal if, during so many centuries, from 
Abraham to Christ, there had occurred no miracles in con- 
nection with the various religious upheavals and the appear- 
ance of so many extraordinary men, who created new 
epochs in spiritual thought. 

The reader who has attentively perused the chapters on 
The Transcendental Powers in Man, 011 Sleep, Visions, Ex- 
cursions of the Spirit, Second Sight, Clairvoyance, Psycho- 
logical Control, Inspiration, and, more especially, the 
chapters on Modern Spiritualism, will find the Bible an 
intelligible book, as far as miracles are concerned ; for he 
has seen that the definition of a miracle does not involve 
* Isaiah liv. 13. Isaiah xxix, n-12. 



244 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

a contravention of natural law, but an employment of a 
higher psychic force, by which lower, material forces are 
counteracted ; the employment of human volition, of intel- 
ligence, for achieving certain results ; the use of unknown, 
not supernatural forces. 

What do miracles prove ? They do not prove moral 
propositions, miracles do not prove doctrines. The mere 
performance of a miracle does not prove that the per- 
former is endowed with anything more than a gift latent 
in most men, but abnormally developed in him, a gift of 
producing phenomena called occult or marvelous. Some 
gifts of this nature were often committed in olden times, 
" not to the principal champions of the Christian cause, 
but to boys, to women, and above all to private and obscure 
laymen, not only of an inferior, but sometimes also of a 
bad character. This only proves, however, that they were 
in a measure dependent, like magnetic power, on certain 
physical conditions. 

The modern examples among us confirm this. Never- 
theless, the highest order of spiritual gifts appear to attach 
themselves only to those who are, in a corresponding de- 
gree, morally and spiritually elevated. Hence, doubtless, 
the unexampled pre-eminence of Christ's powers." * As 
was recently said in answer to a question concerning the 
promised signs and wonders that were to follow those 
who would be followers of Christ, in going about doing 
good : " So few of those who claim to preach the gospel 
of Christ at the present time really follow in His footsteps 
and go about — unmindful of personal comfort or happi- 
ness — among the poor and unfortunate, breathing the 
spirit of love and helpfulness to other lives, that we do not 
wonder the signs which he promised do not follow them." 

* The Debatable Land, by Robert Dale Owen, page 168. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 245 

Generally speaking, however, the rule is that miracles 
have no evidential value, such as is ascribed to them in 
orthodox theology under the appellation of " External 
Evidence." In the Mosaic Economy it is laid down as a 
law that miracles alone do not prove doctrines." * In 
the Talmud it is related that Rabbi Eliezer had a learned 
dispute with Rabbi Joshuah, and in order to prove that 
he was right, he performed in succession three miracles, 
but his opponent did not recognize such marvelous feats 
as proofs, when Rabbi Eliezer forthwith called for Bath 
Kol, a voice from Heaven, to decide the matter. Then a 
voice from Heaven said : " Why dispute with Rabbi 
Eliezer ? he is always right." But the undaunted Rabbi 
Joshuah replied : " The Law is not in Heaven." (Deut. 
xxx. 12.) We regard not the Bath Kol. 

In the book of Genesis there are in the first eleven 
chapters undoubtedly myths and legends as well as al- 
legories of esoteric origin ; but with the twelfth chapter 
begins sober history. Abraham hears a voice that tells 
him to emigrate from his native land ; the Lord appears 
to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob ; Abraham entertains 
three men, who predict a future event and read the 
thoughts of the wife of Abraham, who is in another apart- 
ment. (Genesis, xvii.) Of course, the orthodox Chris- 
tian interpretations can no longer be accepted. For 
instance in the Speaker's Commentary, vol. i., page 123, it 
is declared, that of the three men who visited Abraham 
" two were angels and one was Jehovah himself ; that the 
trinity is symbolized in the three men, and that Jehovah 
had taken on the shape of a man, in the person of the 
Lord Jesus. In Smith? s Dictionary of the Bible the phrase 
the angel of Jehovah or the angel of God is declared to 
* Deut. xiii., 2-4. Heb. Bible. 



246 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

mean " a manifestation of God himself in the form of man? 
being the second person in the trinity.* 

In the light of modern spiritual knowledge, however, we 
see in the Biblical angels what the word angel signifies : 
Messengers, spiritual visitants, who, if materialized, can 
partake of food, as the spiritual guests of Abraham did. 
The angel, however, who appeared to Manoah and his 
wife declined earthly food. " Though thou detain me, I 
will not eat of thy bread," t which is explainable on the 
supposition that this messenger appeared as a spirit, not 
materialized. 

In the East, life was more subjective. Eastern races 
are more contemplative ; not in such feverish haste to 
explore external nature; not absorbed as we are in fierce 
competition. They did not, as we do, study external 
nature, but concentrated their mind on mental studies, 
hence excelled in philosophy, ethics and metaphysics. 
They lived more natural, less artificial, not enfeebled by 
our luxuries and stimulants. Oriental nations, to this day. 
are more susceptible to spiritual influences, as all races 
are who live nearer and closer to mother nature. Our 
North American Indians are possessed of more powerful 
magnetic forces than the pale-faced men. As a matter of 
fact, all our great religions came from the East ; and 
Western Europe and America are now only rediscovering 
psychic forces and spiritual truths, which had been known 
for many centuries in India, Egypt, Asia Minor, Arabia, 
and Palestine. Miracles were wrought and are wrought 
to this day in the East, psychic powers are displayed by 
the humblest fakirs, which are ignorantly disbelieved by 
our materialistic western world. But not alone in Asia ; 
all over the globe there were anciently, and there are to- 

* Smith's Diet, of the Bible, i., 95. t Judges xiii. 16. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 247 

day, mediums. Hence miracles are not confined to the 
Bible.* 

The mistake of the ancients was to assume manifesta- 
tions from invisible intelligences to be divine. We in- 
terpret them more rationally. If a person nowadays is 
dairaudient and hears a voice not proceeding from a 
mortal, he does not, if well informed, attribute the voice 
to Almighty God, but to a spirit ; and he would, moreover, 
not attach any authority to utterances of this sort. He 
would know that a human being, though out of the fleshly 
body and invested with a more ethereal body, is still a 
human, finite intelligence ; in character either good, bad, 
or indifferent, wise or otherwise. Now, this point is of 
extreme importance in the interpretation of the ancient 
sacred record ; for we see, at once, how the Deity must be 
exonerated from charges of unrighteousness in commands 
purporting to come from God, commands which must have 
emanated from spiritual chiefs. 

Let it be noted that there are powers and principalities 
in the spirit-world, as well as on earth, and that tribal 
organizations exist above as well as below. If good spirits 
can influence and control mediums, so can revengeful or 
domineering spirits ; spirits who seek to make their earthly 
tribes powerful and who act on the principle that the end 
sanctifies the means. What a flood of light this throws on 
many a command of questionable morality, purporting to 
issue from the ineffable Being whom we mortals can only 
apprehend as the dual unity of infinite Love and infinite 
Wisdom. 

Likewise, there is no more conflict between science and 
the Bible, since we regard the book no more as a final 

* See The Wonders of Hindoo Magic, in The Arena for Decem- 
jer, 1893, fr° m the pen of H. Hensoldt, Ph. D. 



248 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

revelation from God. We know, on the other hand, that 
the other book, called the book of Nature, is a revelation 
from God, and therefore no alleged other book from God 
can gainsay what modern Astronomy, Geology and Biology 
have discovered. We see in the Bible a number of sacred 
books of very unequal value, which address themselves to 
man's spiritual and intellectual faculties, subject to the 
principle : " Prove all things ; hold fast that which is 
good ! " 

I know that it is taught from orthodox pulpits, that 
there can be no selecting and rejecting ; that the Bible 
must be accepted and believed as a whole, from Genesis 
to Revelation. I also know that there are many intelli- 
gent men and women who refrain from using their own 
reason in this matter, the same reason, discrimination and 
sound logic, that assures their success in other pursuits. 
It is easier to take truths ready made from the man in the 
pulpit, than to " search the Scriptures " for one's self. 
Even those who in some measure abandon the orthodox 
standpoint, do not succeed to get entirely rid of a certain 
vague awe, when called upon to decide between reason 
and so-called revelation. 

On saying to a very cultured lady that some things in 
the Bible must be rejected, she exclaimed, somewhat 
shocked : " How is it possible to reject some parts 
and still accept others ? " She, as the principal of a 
high-school, firmly believes in the Copernican theory, 
hence, does actually reject, by implication the Biblical 
astronomy ; yet the proposition to apply the principles of 
selection to the Bible has a startling, if not an appalling 
effect upon her religious sensibilities. I may mention here 
another case of illogical reasoning on the part of an eminent 
Logician, who, from opposite reasons, comes to an illegiti- 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTUR E. 249 

mate conclusion. Professor Alexander Bain, in an essay on 
Metaphysical Study, mentions with approval the example 
of a gentleman who duly abandoned the Bible altogether 
on finding out that the six days of creation, as described in 
Genesis, are rejected by modern science. This gentleman 
acted, says the Professor, on the Principle of " Falsus in 
uno, falsus in omnibus; Wrong in one thing, wrong in 
everything y One would expect better reasoning from a 
Professor of Logic in an English university. 

The task of "reconciling " the texts of the Bible with 
modern physical science in matters of astronomy or anthro- 
pology, etc., will also be relinquished ; for there is nothing 
to reconcile ; no more necessity to stretch texts so as to 
make them more plausible to students of modern science ; 
for we regard the Bible in a different light. 

But to return to the question of miracles. It was 
stated above, that miracles have no evidential value as so- 
called external evidence of a divine revelation. Let me add 
to this that, what miracles do prove is, that there are 
transcendental powers dormant in the human soul ; that 
there is a spirit in man ; that man is immortal, and that 
there is an unseen universe, a realm of reality unlike the 
shadowy, fleeting phenomenal world of material existence. 

Thus is this problem of the Bible solved in the universal 
solvent, the spiritual philosophy, and the prestige of the 
book is restored. 

And now we can perceive why hitherto men and women 
of deep religious sensibilities still cherished the sacred 
book, notwithstanding the adverse criticism of modern 
iconoclasts. 1st. The supernatural element in the Bible 
is its essence from the religious point of view, being 
bound up with man's hopes and spiritual aspirations. 
2nd, No substitute was offered by negative criticism for 



250 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 



the precious and comforting truths of religion ; the only 
alternative seemed hopeless pessimism and moral chaos. 
The old adage is true : " A man convinced against his 
will, is of the old opinion still." 3d, No convincing 
rationale had yet been offered of the origin of miracles, 
only guesses, theories and speculations. 

All this is now changed by the facts of the new psychic 
and spiritual researches. Again the assurance is repeated : 
" I come not to destroy, but to fulfil." Ay, if there are 
no useful errors, then all should abandon them with alac- 
rity and accept the truth, for there can be no harmful 
truths. Thus the spiritual philosphy does show the way 
out of perplexity, doubt and unbelief. It comes, a friend, 
not a foe, to the Church, and it is the only friend that can 
help the Church out of its perplexing condition. What- 
ever is true in the Bible and in Christianity can only be 
conserved through the truth of Modern Spiritualism. 

If theologians really want to save the Scriptures, let 
them aid, not oppose, Spiritualism. 

If they, however, will continue to attack it, either by 
calling the spiritual phenomena tricks of imposture, or 
by stigmatizing them as emanating from demoniacal or 
satanic agencies, then let them know that they are pursu- 
ing a suicidal course ; for then they are sawing off the 
branch upon which they themselves are sitting. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 251 



CHAPTER XXVIII. 

CONCLUSION. 

A modern seer, in reiterating Job's saying : " Touch- 
ing the Almighty, we cannot find Him out," * conveys, in 
the following words, the thought that man, as we know him 
cannot even comprehend a human being who has attained 
r certain altitude in spiritual growth. A. J. Davis says : 
" No human spirit has yet conceived a thought, or uttered 
a word, as it conceives of the Father, sufficiently magna- 
nimous, sublime or expressive, to be applied to even one of 
the glorious individuals, who, though once a resident upon 
some earth, now treads the beautiful paths and flowering 
valleys of the Spirit Home. " f If the heights man is 
destined to reach, as he develops into angel, archangel 
and beyond, are inconceivable to us at present, how can 
we aspire to understand the Divine Nature ? In order to 
know more, we must be more. Therefore the Spiritual 
philosophy refrains from denning that which is Infinite. 
" There is no time nor space, nor matter in the Infinite." 
" By and by," writes P. B. Randolph, "in ages ten or twenty 
thousand millennia hence, there will arise an organ whose 
function will be that of more clearly cognizing God." Of 
one thing we may be sure and that is, God cannot be less 
than man. If man is an entity, an individual, God can 
only be more, and, as Mr. Spencer says somewhere, there 

* Job xxxvii. 23. t Special Providences, page 60. 



252 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

may be a state of being as much higher than Individuality, 
as Individuality is higher than an impersonal object or thing. 
" The Infinite cannot be comprehended, but can be con- 
ceived of through perception, " it is said in The Soul; 
or, as we would say : God can be apprehended, but not com- 
prehended. " The conceptions (apprehensions) of the mind 
are prophecies, and the comprehensions of the mind are lim- 
itations." * Mr. Herbert Spencer says we can only have 
a symbolic conception, not a real conception of many things. 
"Great magnitudes, great durations, great numbers, are 
none of them actually conceived, but are all of them con- 
ceived more or less symbolically. " " When, on the sea- 
shore we note how the hulls of distant vessels are hidden 
below the horizon, and how, of still remoter vessels, only the 
uppermost sails are visible, we realize with tolerable clear- 
ness the slight curvature of that portion of the sea's sur- 
face which lies before us. But when we seek in imagination 
to follow out this curved surface as it actually exists, slowly 
bending round until all its meridians meet in a point eight 
thousand miles below our feet, we find ourselves utterly 
baffled. We cannot conceive in its real form and magni- 
tude even that small segment of our globe which extends 
a hundred miles on every side of us, much less the globe 
as a whole." f Speaking of the aeons of geological time, 
Mr. Fiske remarks : " If these periods seem short in com- 
parison with the enormous quantity of work that has been 
done, both in the tearing down and rebuilding of the 
earth's crust and in the modification of the forms of 
animals and vegetables, it is no doubt largely due — as 
both Mr. Darwin and Mr. Croll have reminded us — to the 
fact that it is almost impossible for us to frame an ade- 

* The Soul, by Mrs. Cora L. V. Richmond, page 9. 
t First Principles, Sec. 9 and 10. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 253 

quate conception of what is meant by a million years. 
We are wont to use these great arithmetical figures 
glibly and without comprehending their import." Mr. Croll 
has done something to help us in this matter. " Here is 
one way," he says, " of conveying to the mind some idea 
of what a million of years really is. Take a narrow strip 
of paper, an inch broad or more, and 83 feet 4 inches in 
length, and stretch it along the wall of a large hall, or 
round the walls of an apartment somewhat over 20 feet 
square. Recall to memory the days of your boyhood, so 
as to get some adequate conception of what a period of a 
hundred years is. Then mark off from one of the ends 
of the strip one-tenth of an inch. The one-tenth of an inch 
will then represent one hundred years and the entire 
length of the strip a million of years." * 

These illustrations are here quoted in order to recall 
once more what was said above in Chapter III. on The 
Destiny of Man, and in Chapter XXII. on Spiritual 
Evolution. Man begins low down, and passes through 
all ascending stages. From the savage, of the type 
represented by the natives of Tierra del Fuego, of 
whom Mr. Darwin says : " The astonishment which I 
felt on first seeing a party of Fuegians on a wild and 
broken shore will never be forgotten by me, for the reflec- 
tion at once rushed into my mind — such were our ances- 
tors. These men were absolutely naked and bedaubed 
with paint, their long hair was tangled, their mouths 
frothed with excitement, and their expression was wild, 
startled and distrustful." f From such a one to the 
angel or seraph is an enormous distance, but analogy 
from the lower or material evolution lessens our amaze- 

* Excursions of an Evolutionist, by John Fiske, page 16. 
t The Descent of Man, page 618, Am. Edition. 



254 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

ment. " If you measured the height of an oak every day 
for a week, and found it always forty feet high, that ob- 
servation would not prove that it would always be forty 
feet high. It would only prove that whatever change of 
height took place in a week was too small to be found 
out by your way of measuring it. We know that the oak 
was once an acorn, so that it passed from one condition 
to the other. It did so gradually, by tiny steps, and not 
by great jumps. We know that all the living matter on 
the earth was once inorganic, so that it has passed from 
one condition to the other somehow." * 

Now, if we must count physical evolution by millions of 
years, how much more time must we give to the slower 
processes of moral and spiritual evolution. " Take two 
persons, one a Hottentot, Digger-Indian or thick-lipped 
Negro of the ' stupid ' tribe — two or three specimens of 
whom may be often seen waddling up and down the 
streets of Boston, listlessly staring in the shop windows 
and fancying themselves ultra-human, when but three 
removes from the horn-headed gorilla — the other shall be 
a glorified seraph from the galactic girdle of the universe 
of universes. They are both men, — -are the same exter- 
nalized idea, but what a difference ! one would eat his 
brother — the Hottentot ; one is ignorant of God's exist- 
ence — the Digger ; one, the thick-lipped Negro, is wholly 
unprincipled, incapable of refinement or true civilization, 
and would swear away the liberty or life of his best friend 
with perfect nonchalance and moral unconcern ; — while the 
last, the seraph, would plunge into the seething hell — if 
one existed — to save his most malignant foe. It is the 
difference of a lump of charcoal against the Koh-i-noor, 
the largest and most costly diamond known ; and these 

* From a reply to Dr. Elam, by Prof. W. K. Clifford. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 255 

last are again both identical in substance — the very same 
idea, each being carbon ; but one is valued at ten cents a 
bushel, the other at two million pounds sterling, — an em- 
peror's ransom twice told." * 

Mr. Davis tells us in one of his books (Answers to 
Questions, page 121,) that "Spiritual progression does 
not take place in a straight line ; the eternal process is 
undulating and spiral ; at the uppermost point of one 
spiral, the spirit merges upon the base line of a new diver- 
gence, from the pivotal goal of the last experience." " Eter- 
nal progression of the individual, when justly compre- 
hended, is — to speak paradoxically — a truth beyond all 
comprehension ; which is another way of saying this : 
Eternity is an impossible conception, except as it is divided 
up into ' times,' just as Infinity is incomprehensible, ex- 
cept as it is divided into ' spaces.' Therefore eternal 
progression means to a man's mind, and always must mean, 
an endless succession of periods, eras, or ages, through 
which his mind makes pilgrimages, retaining and main- 
taining his identity by memory of only the substance or 
essences of all his experiences ; but perpetually losing 
memory of the details of every experience ; thus forever 
keeping the universe new, his spiritual appetite for uni- 
versal feeding forever healthy, and his aspirations eternally 
youthful towards the whole, and away through into all its 
countless parts and varieties. So the human mind, like 
the sun, has its aphelions and perihelions ; it travels to the 
extreme of its orbit in one great Sphere ; then it retraces 
its steps back to its center ; and then, planet-like, it starts 
immediately out upon another journey through the bound- 
less fields of an unfathomable Univerccelum." | 

* After Death, by P. B. Randolph, page 100. 

t Views of our Heavenly Home, by A. J. Davis, page 174. 



256 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

»■ 

The law of action and reaction is thus operative. Im- 
agine a traveler who has to climb over a successive chain 
of hills and mountains of ever-increasing height. After 
reaching the top of one mountain he must descend into 
the valley to reach the next higher one. Yet the valley of 
spiritual reaction is often higher than the mountain left 
behind, so that the descent is part of the following higher 
ascent, the reaction being a preparation for greater prog- 
ress. There are also false heights with counterfeit vir- 
tues and false elevations, from which individuals and races 
must painfully go down into the valley of humiliation, in 
order to ascend the real heights. But the outcome is 
glorious. 

In the strife and turmoil of earthly materialism ; in the 
wilderness of the present struggle for existence, there is 
heard again " the voice of one that crieth, Prepare ye in the 
wilderness the way of the Lord, make straight in the desert 
a highway for our God. Every valley shall be exalted, and 
every mountain and hill shall be made low : and the crooked 
shall be made straight, and the rough places smooth : and 
the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall 
see it." * 

If this doctrine of u Eternal hope" in the place of u Eter- 
nal damnation" seem to the theologian less capable of 
restraining men from sin, let him remember that man is 
ever accompanied by the nemesis of absolute justice, and 
that retribution is ever operative. Besides, what is more 
rational and equitable than " working out one's own sal- 
vation " ? Here is a divine verity ready to take the place 
of a human dogma, the dogma of vicarious atonement 
Surely, no one need feel apprehensive in exchanging error 
for truth. Sin is moral disease ; means are provided for 

* Isaiah xl, 3-5. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 257 

its cure, for restoring moral health. " The methods, em- 
ployed for healing are often called punishments ; in reality 
they are remedial penalties, and form a necessary part of 
the discipline of the human soul." 

When Jesus said to Nicodemus : " Verily, verily, I say 
unto thee, Unless a man be born again, he cannot see the 
Kingdom of God " (John iii. 3), the learned master of 
Israel exclaimed : How is that possible ? In stating his 
objection, however, he "betrayed his misapprehension, his 
taking the words in the wrong sense. Just so it is with 
many modern masters, who object to the law of re-birth. 
The proposition being to take the metaphorical words of 
Christ literally, namely, that a man cannot enter the higher 
spheres unless he be born again and again. 

The self evident truth that what is evolved must be in- 
volved, that whatever has no end can have had no begin- 
ning, seems to be overlooked by most opponents of Re- 
embodiment. 

Even the great seer and writer, Dr. Andrew Jackson 
Davis, scouts the idea of pre-existence. In Vol. V. of the 
Great Harmonia, page 392, he says : " Minds of no little 
intelligence have been, and are still, groping after a ' pre- 
existence ' of the personality of the soul, in order to fix 
philosophically the belief that it will never cease to ex- 
ist The interior deductive Philosophy teaches 

that the spirit, as an entity, begins to exist here." Mr. 
Hudson Tuttle also strongly argues against re-embodi- 
ments. See his Religion of Man, page 184, etc. One of 
the guides of Mrs. Lillie is reported to have declared 
facetiously : " If I am ever caught or found taking on an 
earthly body, now that I am once free, you will catch me 
napping." (Banner of Light, Feb. 20, 1892.) 

Mr. Clegg Wright, I understand, rejects the doctrine ; 

i7 



258 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

and Miss Abbey A. Judson, states formally her objections 
a priori in the Light of Truth of Feb. 3, 1894. 

Now, if successive embodiments take place, the process 
is governed by law ; is a fact in nature against which 
a priori arguments will not avail. Moreover, if the awful 
problem of evil and of the natural inequalities in human 
life is only soluble in the light of this doctrine, it follows 
a posteriori, that men, in and out of the flesh, should think 
twice before they, in their capacity'as public teachers, dis- 
miss this doctrine almost with scorn, often with sarcasm. 
The question is : How do we spend our eternity ? What 
is the modus operandi of Spiritual Evolution ? Can we 
gain experience and discipline by proxy ? As a matter of 
fact we cannot now, in this life, gain these by proxy ; why 
should we be able to do so in the higher life ? " We 
know of a very philanthropic clergyman in England who, 
in order that he may sympathize with the state of the 
prisoner, locks himself up with the criminals and shares 
their food and lodging. This is about as absurd as it 
would be for a man to be hanged for murder, who has not 
committed murder, that he may know how a murderer 
feels. The state of the murderer is in the heart ; one 
cannot take the place of the criminal unless he is in a 
state of crime. He may endure, physically, what the crim- 
inal is called upon to do, but he has the armor with which 
to do it; the armor of innocence. So that which is a 
penalty to the criminal, is simply the heroism of self- 
appointed martyrdom to him who shares the dungeon, 
but has not the darkness of guilt." {The Soul, page 57.) 
An excarnated intelligence, who calls himself Wm. Bar- 
ron, declares in The Light of Truth, Feb. 3, 1894, that 
" many spirits who had done no work on earth, who have 
not discharged their proper earth duties ; also suicides, 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 259 

are often remanded back to earth to affix or polarize them- 
selves on to some mortal, and often remain thus for many 
years." This is what is called obsession. " I can say, as 
a spirit," he continues, " who has lived in the spirit world 
for many years, that there is no re-incarnation." 

A better informed spirit, the illustrious Father Pierpont, 
justly inveighs against this, saying : " It would be unjust 
to the individual upon whom such a spirit would impinge 
in mortal life, or obsess ; for in order to reap the entire 
experience necessary to round out the soul, that spirit 
would constantly have to impinge upon the mortal, and 
thus drain it of the elements necessary for its own suste- 
nance and experience. This would, in fact, deprive that 
mortal sensitive of that discipline which belongs to it 
alone, and consequently the spirit has no right and no 
power to do this for a term of years in succession." {The 
Banner of Light, December 3, 1892.) 

As in physical life we cannot grow by proxy, nor eat or 
digest by proxy, nor study by proxy, neither acquire any 
skill or moral qualities by the dexterity or self-control of 
others, so we must not expect a miracle, a miracle in the 
impossible sense, when we ascend to a higher sphere. " I 
have pain in my left side," said a young lady to a pretended 
physician, a very bold-faced quack, who declared that 
he could cure all and every disease human flesh is heir to. 
"You have liver-disease," said he. The patient replied: 
" But, Doctor, the liver is situated on the right side and 
my pain is in the left." " Ah," was the rejoinder, " that 
was so in olden times ; but now, we modern physicians 
have changed that, and the liver is now on the left side ! " 
Are not the Divine Laws immutable ? If there were no 
uniformity of nature, we would be in perpetual confusion. 
Already nineteen centuries ago it was said that with God : 



260 the religion oe the future. 

"There can be no variation, neither shadow of turning." 
(James i. 17.) "For," says Saint Paul, "God is not the 
author of confusion, but of peace " (harmony). (1 Cor. xiv. 

33-) 

Father Pierpont declares : " Certain tribes of remote 
times are not to be found in the spirit world, either in 
the condition in which they existed on earth, or in a more 
advanced state ; like the bushmen of Africa, whose spirits 
are not to be found in the spirit world. They have been 
re-embodied upon some portion of the earth, to undergo 
an experience in contact with matter." " Also those who 
passed out as idiots," etc. {The Banner of Light, March 
18, 1893.) 

Again, how can we explain the appalling evils and 
natural inequalities of earth-life ? One human being is 
born of noble parents with good inherited tendencies, and 
starts out in life with the best chances for mental and 
moral development. Another child is born of ignorant or 
vicious parents, born with a defective brain, bad inherited 
tendencies, amid degrading surroundings, and thus starts 
out in life under fearfully bad auspices. Now, where is 
the Divine Justice in these awful disparities ? These 
problems already perplexed the ancients, and the author 
of Ecclesiastes boldly declares them inexplicable. " That 
which is crooked, cannot be made straight." 

He boldly charges the Deity with injustice. Mark his 
words : " Consider the work of God ; for who can make that 
straight, which he hath made crooked ? " (Ecc. vii. 13.) 

A. J. Davis grapples with this problem ; but to my 
mind he fails to solve it adequately, which failure is 
inevitable from his premises. Instead of seeing in the 
law of heredity a mere secondary cause, he postulates it 
as the primal cause. In vol. ii., Great Harmonia, page 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 261 

165, he says : " The primary source of evil is hereditary 
organization .... And here we find the foundation of 
evil — its origin." The italics are mine. " Who," he con- 
tinues, " shall receive the blame ? Who deserves it ? The 
parents ? — They were, perhaps, born with similar defects 
of physical organization and character. Shall the evil be 
imputed to previous generations ? Perhaps they were no 
less perfect. So questions may be asked as to the 
proper subjects of blame or praise, until we lose ourselves 
ip the animal kingdom — and still echo responds, " W 7 ho ? " 
I cannot express adequately how much I owe to this 
great seer and inspirational writer, and how much I revere 
him as my teacher, guide and counselor. But in the in- 
terest of truth he will pardon my assertion that the above 
quoted explanation leaves the problem just where it was 
before. I do not overlook the law of heredity as a factor, 
but I contend that heredity is not the primary, efficient 
cause of evil. Back of this law is ever the merit or de- 
merit of the spirit, the Karma, which determines the 
status into which the child shall be born. Every indi- 
vidual creates his or her own opportunities ; is the molder 
of his own destiny ; the architect of his own fortune. 
Like the indestructibility of matter and the conservation 
of force in the material world, every deed, thought, or 
motive, good or evil, is distilled into Karma; is being 
woven into the texture of the web and woof of character. 
Thus, and only thus, is Divine Justice administered, and 
we behold Absolute Equity in the moral world. 

To assume that man begins to exist on Earth as an 
Entity, is to still maintain that portion of Darwinism which 
must now be abandoned in the light of recent discoveries. 
Even from the mere standpoint of biological science Mr. 
A. R. Wallace has proved conclusively that man's mental 



262 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

and moral faculties were not derived from the lower 
animals. See pages 461-478 of Darwinism, by A. R. 
Wallace. Macmillan & Co., 1889. 

Thus is the way prepared for the true conception of the 
Origin of Man. Evolution involves Involution. Eternity 
implies Pre-existence. The Cause must be adequate to 
produce the Effect, as was shown in these pages, and as 
is more fully stated in Mrs. Richmond's book on Psy- 
chopathy, and especially in her work The Soul. The 
reader is also referred to the lucid exposition of Mr. 
W. J. Colville in his admirable book, Studies in 
Theosophy. 

I may also mention the fact that the foremost writers 
in Germany, Carl du Prel and L. B. Hcllenbach, teach Re- 
incarnation as a fundamental fact in the new science of 
man. French Spiritualists, as a rule, accept Re-incarna- 
tion, Allan Karder having been an enthusiastic exponent 
of this natural law, which he himself discovered in his 
own reminiscence of a former life. 

All human attainments are self-acquired. Given un- 
limited time, and the rudest human being may, nay, will 
become angelic. All must pass through all possible ex- 
periences and discipline, and the highest conceivable 
celestial being must have once been a humble individual 
such as we are. " For we have not an high priest which 
cannot be touched with the feeling of our infirmities ; but 
was in all points tempted like as we are" (Heb. iv. 15.) 

Innumerable minor problems thus solve themselves. 
Such, for instance, as the so-called innate attributes of 
men ; the phenomenon of what we call genius, which is 
a culmination in a certain direction ; the anomalies of an 
Esau born from refined parents, and of a noble son, the 
offspring of vicious parents. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 263 

Some children seem superior to their parents ; some far 
inferior to all their ancestors. Take an Esau and give him 
the best chances for acquiring culture, he is innately un- 
able to avail himself thereof ; he is not yet ready for higher 
attainments ; while a " Mozart," at four years of age, 
composed pieces of music. " To amuse ourselves," says 
the father, in a letter to a friend, " I explained the pedals 
to Wolfgang. He began immediately, stante fiede, to try 
them, pushed the stool back, and preluded standing, and 
treading the bass, as if he had practiced many months." 

The reader must fill the gap from his own similar ob- 
servations. 

Mr. A. P. Sinnett in his Esoteric Buddhism says : "The 
time spent by an individual in earth-life is a small fraction 
— the larger part of the time — as we reckon duration of 
time — is obviously, therefore, spent in the spirit world. 

Assume that the average life of each incarnation 

was a century ; even then we should only have 12,000 
years out of a million spent in physical existence, against 
988,000 years spent in the spiritual state, which would be 
at the ratio of 80 to 1 at least. Then surely man's spirit- 
ual existence is more important than his physical." As 
to the hardships of earth-life he says aptly : " The spirit- 
life is ever at hand to receive, refresh and restore the Soul 
after the struggles, achievements or sufferings of incarna- 
tion." 

Will the patient reader once more contemplate what is 
quoted in another chapter : Every incarnation of the pre- 
existing spirit passes through the earthly phase into the 
succeeding spiritual state, " the latter being the continua- 
tion or fruition of each embodiment. As the seed planted 
in the soil has a certain growth beneath the surface of the 
ground, a fuller growth above the surface, and fruition 



264 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

there, so the spirit has the fruition of its embodiment in 
the state which follows the separation from the body." 
{The Soul, p. 65.) 

Lessing is reported to have exclaimed when dying : " O 
God, give me great thoughts ! " I submit, that these are 
great thoughts, which will transfigure our prosaic every 
day life and enable us to shout triumphantly : 

" Lend, lend your wings ! I mount ! I fly I 
O Grave ! where is thy victory ? 
O Death ! where is thy sting ? " 

To answer, in detail, all possible minor questions, is im- 
possible within the limits of this book, which is concerned 
only with the outlines of a stupendous system, a system 
the divinely symmetrical proportions of which can only 
gradually reveal themselves to the contemplating soul. 
With Kant I can confidently say that " there is not a 
single problem in human life which is not solved here, or 
for the solution of which the key has not been given." 

Not only this, but the spiritual philosophy reveals the 
fallacies of other systems, as no other philosophy can, 
because of its lofty standpoint, from which it commands 
a view of all avenues of approach. Instead of beginning 
with man and mind, to explain the world and matter, 
modern materialistic thought began with matter to explain 
man and mind ; an inverted method that could only pro- 
duce preposterous results. " Ye turn things upside down ! 
Shall the potter be counted as clay ; that the thing made 
should say of him that made it, He made me not ; or the 
thing framed say of him that framed it, He hath no under- 
standing ? " * 

" He that is spiritual judgeth all things, yet he himself 
is judged of no man."f 

* Isaiah xxix. 16. t I Cor. ii. 15. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 265 

Let the reader beware of systems and methods of re- 
search that begin apparently with the criticism of the 
Bible only, but end with subverting Christianity, and 
with denying the Immortality of the Soul. Both Strauss 
and Renan came to such fatal conclusions. Though M. 
Renan is sentimental and at times assumes a sort of co- 
quettish tone toward religion, he in reality has boasted of 
the fact that even peasants in France believe no more 
in a hereafter. As regards Strauss, he began with vilify- 
ing the Bible and ended with utter bankruptcy in faith, 
with no God, no immortality ; reminding one of the 
words of Frederick II. , to the runaway soldiers at a lost 
battle " Hwtde ! wollt ihr ewig leben ? " "Ye dogs ! do 
you want to live forever ? " * 

M. Renan, lately deceased, is reported to have said 
something sentimental on his death-bed concerning a 
future life. But sentimental gush has always character- 
ized that author and cannot atone for the mischief he has 
done in frequently ridiculing the hope of compensation 
in a future life for the trials, privations and bereavements 
of this world. It seems as if nature had stunted some 
human beings in spirituality, so that they do not even ear- 
nestly desire to find the essential truths of religion veri- 
fied. Abnormal such a state of mind certainly is. " The 
natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God : 
for they are foolishness unto him ; neither can he know 
them, because they are spiritually discerned." f 

With the acceptance of, and practical conformity with 
the great principles outlined in this book, the human race 
will, after having passed the physical and intellectual de- 

* See Strauss ' Der Alte unt der Neuer Glaube, 1882. 
f 1 Cor. ii. 14. 



266 THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 

grees of expression, enter upon the third or spiritual stage 
of development.* Already the atmosphere is pregnant 
with forebodings of great impending reforms and social 
transformations. Hitherto, " Love thy neighbor as thy- 
self ! " was preached but not practiced. This precept, 
said to be as old as Confucius, who lived many centuries 
before the Christian era, has not yet been realized ade- 
quately and universally in human conduct, because the in- 
stitutions of society constrain men to be selfish and over- 
reaching. But the religion of the future, being an every- 
day religion, not a system of mere ceremonial piety, has for 
its aim the reconstruction and gradual transformation of 
these institutions, not by force nor by might, but by the 
spirit ; the spirit of equity and true brotherhood. The 
weapons of this warfare will not be carnal, but spiritual, 
and the victory will consist in overcoming self, the lower 
self. Then this precept can be obeyed ; then men can prac- 
tice every day w T hat is preached on Sunday ; then the 
golden rule will no more be a dead letter. It is a con- 
summation devoutly to be wished for. 

When, as at present, the problem of pure water for the 
great city of Chicago is an unsolved one, one cannot but 
think that, if, instead of being a matter of health, it were 
a matter of money-making, the problem would have been 
solved long ago. Yes, the time will come when men will 
use their energy and the appliances of science for sanitary 
purposes in order to prevent disease ; for prevention of 
disease will be the great doctor of the future. The time, 
when men of intellectual and financial resources will think 
more of deeds of philanthropy than of amassing wealth ; 
when the strong will " bear the infirmities of the weak, 
instead of pleasing themselves." 

* See The Soul, page 44. 



THE RELIGION OF THE FUTURE. 267 

But the one thing demonstrated by the spiritual phi- 
losophy which is transcendently glorious and of tremen- 
dous consequences for man, is the certainty of immortality. 
Soon the long streamers of black crape, the cerements of 
woe, will have vanished from sight and the more fitting 
white color will have taken their place. True, the parting 
of friends will always be sad ; but the sadness attending 
transition will ever be transfigured by the blessed con- 
sciousness of being reunited in a higher sphere. 

With these hopes I now bring this work to a close, not 
unmindful of the supernal aid of great and good intelli- 
gences, of the Spirits of Love and Wisdom who have in- 
spired my humble pen. I also beg to express my profound 
obligation to those Authors from whose works I have 
taken the liberty to quote. 

The book I now conclude comes with no modest mien, 
but with mighty claims. Modesty befits the mere instru- 
ment used by higher powers for transmitting great truths 
but the truths themselves are irresistibly victorious. 

If, like the greater books of modern seers, this present 
volume should be listlessly received by this generation, the 
ardor of the writer would not in the least be dampened, 
knowing, as he does, that the great principles here laid 
down will be truisms in succeeding ages, and that posterity 
will hail any instrumentality by which the Kingdom of 
God will be inaugurated on earth. 

No claim is made by the author to literary skill or ele- 
gance of style. His absorbing aim was to make intelligible 
to the popular mind the truths of the Spiritual Philosophy 
or the Religion of the Future. 

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tions that appeal to all those lovers of literature who have 
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agreeable philosophers of their time. 

" Meditations in Motley " is a book for the fireside or 
outdoors ; for gray days or sunshine ; for solitude or 
society. It will take its place among those books handy 
at one's elbow which one instinctively reaches for as one 
sinks into a cosy armchair in a snug corner and abandons 
one's self to the seductions of meditation and firelight — 
and perhaps a pipe of tobacco. 

The papers are on the most various topics, and throw 
light on literature and social questions without touching 
directly the essay in criticism or sociology. " Meditations 
in Motley " is a book that tumbles out of every category. 
It is a book of its own kind — as all who know the writer's 
work can anticipate. . The style of the essays reminds the 
reader occasionally of the older English humorists, but 
there is added a suggestion of French sparkle and wit and 
vivacity and lightness of touch. 



Ihe History of a iSreat Social Experiment* 

Price in handsome cloth, $2.00. 
BROOK FARM. Memoirs, Historic and Per- 
sonal. 



Dr. John T. 

Codman 



The History of a 
Great Social and 
Intellectual 
Awakening 



A complete history of the famous Brook Farm experi- 
ment has been one of those books which demanded writ- 
ing to complete the most interesting era of American 
literature and social thought, and at last we have a volume 
that covers the whole ground adequately — Dr. John 
Thomas Codman's " Brook Farm : Memoirs, Historic and 
Personal." Dr. Codman is one of the few surviving 
members of the Brook Farm community, and his work 
has, therefore, the special value of intimate personal 
knowledge of the inner workings of the scheme and of the 
character and personalities of the group of famous men 
who were interested in it. The book will have an im- 
mediate claim upon the interest of all students of American 
literature, and of social thought everywhere. 

For sale by all newsdealers, or sent postpaid by 

Arena Publishing Co., Boston, Mass. 



A Bundle of New Books. 



B.O. Flower 



The Social 
Factors at Work 
in the Ascent of 
Man 



& 3SfeuJ Booh of Social Hhought Just Published. 

Price, paper, 25 cents; cloth, $1.00. 

The New Time : A Plea for the Union of 
the floral Forces for Practical Progress. 

This new work, by the author of "Civilization's In- 
ferno,", deals with practical methods for the reform of 
specific social evils. The writer does not bind together a 
mere bundle of social speculations, that would seem to 
many to have only a remote and abstract relevance to 
everyday life. He deals with facts within every one's 
knowledge. "The New Time" brings its matter di- 
rectly home to every man's bosom and business — follow- 
ing Bacon's prescription. 

It is published especially to meet the wants of those 
who wish to apply themselves to and interest their friends 
in the various branches of educational and social effort 
comprised in the platform of the National Union for Prac- 
tical Progress ; but, from its wide sweep of all the factors 
in the social problem, it will also serve to introduce many 
readers to a general consideration of the newer social 
thinking. 

Price, paper, 50 cents ; cloth, $1 .00. 

The Irrepressible Conflict between 
Two World=Theories. 

Five lectures dealing with Christianity and evolutionary 
thought, to which is added " The Inevitable Surrender of 
Orthodoxy." By the famous Unitarian divine, advanced 
thinker and author of "Psychics: Facts and Theories." 
Mr. Savage stands in the van of the progress of moral, 
humane and rational ideas of human society and religion, 
which must be inextricably commingled in the new think- 
ing, and a stronger word for moral and intellectual free- 
dom has never been written than " The Irrepressible 
Conflict." We are now going through the greatest revo- 
lution of thought the world has ever seen. It means 
nothing less than a new universe, a new God, a new man, 
a new destiny. 

For sale by all newsdealers or sent postpaid by 

Arena Publishing Co., Boston, Mass. 



Rev. 

Minot J. 

Savage 



A New World, a 
New God, a New 
Humanity 



The New Relig- 
ious Thinking 
deals only with 
Verities 



From the press of the Arena Publishing Company. 



A Stirring Drama of Iftar-iCimes. 



Hary 
Holland Lee 



Price, paper, 50 cents ; cloth, $1.25. 

! MARGARET SALISBURY. 

The setting of the story is vivid and picturesque, bridg- 
ing the period of our Civil war, and its touches upon New 
England and Virginia life are full of local color, provincial 
phraseology and dramatic power. The tale opens with a 
description of Three Oaks, a fine Virginia estate, the fate 
of whose owners is curiously interwoven with the three 
gigantic trees from which the place receives its name. 
Mrs. Lee strikes the note of heredity firmly, and the most 
tragic complication of her plot hinges upon the unlawful 
use of hypnotic power. The world of books is far too 
poor in well-told stories of our war, to accord anything 
less than enthusiastic welcome to this latest comer, so full 
of rich detail and striking scenes both North and South, 
and so winning in the even, impartial temper with which 
the sad struggles of the great Rebellion are incidentally 
set forth. It will attract that great army of readers which 
turns to books for amusement and distraction. 

" Margaret Salisbury " is the brave and loyal heroine of a 
stirring drama of the Civil War. Her love story is a sad one 
and long in telling, but it affords the author opportunity to intro- 
duce pictures of Southern life in anti-bellum days and some 
startling episodes of army times. The sympathetic interest of 
the reader will be aroused by a succession of unusual incidents. 
— Public Opinion, Washington, D. C. 

North and South, their people and principles, are the text of 
the book. The slavery question is treated from an unprejudiced 
standpoint. The Negro, Yankee and Southern characters are 
lifelike under skilful moulding. As a love story it is pure, sim- 
ple, strong and pathetic. — The American Newsman, New York 
City. 

" Margaret Salisbury " is a story of the war, and is charm- 
ingly told. Its heroes are of the real kind who believe what 
they profess because they Avere born to believe so. The story is 
enlivened by a vein of rather exquisite humor and toned up by 
clean, pure and healthy sentiment, altogether furnishing a most 
entertaining tale of heroic times. — Kansas City Journal. 

For sale by all newsdealers, or sent postpaid by 

Arena Publishing Co., Boston, Mass* 



From the press of the Arena Publishing Company. 



A Sequel to "Looking Bachu>ar6. J 



Rabbi 
Solomon 
Schindler 



Civilization 

under National- 
ism in the 
Twenty-Second 
Century 



YOUNG WEST. 



Price, cloth, $1.25 ; paper, 50 cents. 



The author of ■ ■ Looking Backward " and others did a 
good work in introducing to the general reader many ideas 
which had been discussed for a long time by the best 
scientific writers of our day, but which were and are un- 
fortunately removed from popular sympathy through the 
strictly scientific character of the literary vehicles in which 
they appeared. But the author of " Looking Backward," 
probably on account of the limited compass of his book, 
has not given in detail a description of all the social con- 
ditions of the brighter future which is to witness the tri- 
umph of altruism. He has merely whetted the appetite of 
the reader, but he has not satified his hunger. " Young 
West " (the son of Julian West) will indirectly answer all 
these questions. Describing his own eventful career from 
his first awakening to consciousness to his age of three- 
score and ten, the hero of the book will picture life in its 
various phases, as it will be acted out by a citizen of the 
United States of America in the twenty-second century. 

The book is intended primarily to answer the many 
questions which are asked about the practical workings of 
nationalism and socialism. 



A Stirring Story of the TJIar. 



Helen H. 
Gardener 



Price, cloth, $1.25 ; paper, 50 cents. 

AN UNOFFICIAL PATRIOT. 

This is a story of the Civil War, but it is the first story 
of its kind that has appeared in our literature. It deals 
with a phase of the war entirely new in fiction. It is a 
departure from all Helen Gardener's previous stories, and 
is perhaps the strongest piece of work she has produced. 
The Boston Hoine Journal says : " Is in many ways the 
most remarkable historical novel of the Civil War which 
has yet appeared. The story is filled with strong dramatic 
incidents, and there is a bit of charming romance. Mrs. 
Gardener has produced a book that will take very high 
rank in the historical literature of the War of the Rebellion ; 
for although presented in the form of a novel, its historical 
value cannot be questioned. 11 

For sale by all newsdealers, or sent postpaid by 

Arena Publishing Co., Boston, Mass. 



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